What is Identity Theft?

Identity theft (or identity fraud) is the deliberate assumption of another person's identity, usually to gain access to their finances or frame them for a crime. Less commonly, it is to enable illegal immigration, terrorism, espionage, or changing identity permanently. It may also be a means of blackmail, especially if medical privacy or political privacy has been breached, and if revealing the activities undertaken by the thief under the name of the victim would have serious consequences like loss of job or marriage. Assuming a false identity with the knowledge and approval of the person being impersonated, such as for cheating on an exam, is not considered to be identity theft.

Techniques for obtaining identification information range from the crude, such as stealing mail or rummaging through rubbish (dumpster diving in the USA), stealing personal information in computer databases, to infiltration of organizations that store large amounts of personal information.

Identity theft is usually the result of serious breaches of privacy. Except for the simplest credit-related cases, it is usually not possible without breakdowns in customer privacy, in which case the consequences may be limited to fraud on one corporation, typically the one that leaked the data in the first place, e.g. account numbers.
consumer privacy, more serious, where credit card numbers or other generally-useful identity data are stolen and used much more widely.
client confidentiality and political privacy, making it easy to effectively impersonate someone, by using confidential information that an ordinary impersonator would not have access to.

Consequences of identity theft

In many parts of the world, identity theft is the fastest growing offence. However, in the USA, a longitudinal 2005 study by Javelin Strategy & Research [1] showed that the crime had leveled off since a 2003 study from the Federal Trade Commission [2] was released in 2003. The most recent US Javelin data also showed that 9.3M individuals (or 4.25% of all adults) are victims of identity fraud on an annual basis. In the United Kingdom in 2005 the consumer group Which? issued a report claiming that one in four people had been the victim of identity theft, or knew someone who had been a victim. This misleading claim (linking victims with those who know victims in a single statistic) achieved wide publicity. The Home Office in Britain does not collate data on identity theft, but does, nonetheless, claim that the activity is reaching epidemic proportions.

It is difficult fully to quantify the extent of real personal privacy breaches, as laws requiring disclosure of such instances are just coming into existence.

Instances of identity theft have increased as the availability of personal information, and its volume held by third parties, has increased. In the USA much personal information, including mortgage details, social security numbers, and driving license details, are publicly available. Such sensitive information is far harder to obtain in most other countries, but it is typically held by numerous government and private sector bodies, and is consequently available to their many employees and associate organisations. Of particular concern is the comprehensive personal financial information and other related data held by credit reference agencies. The proliferation of junk mail from many of these organisations, which often includes name and address, has exacerbated the situation.

Precautions against identity theft

Rigorous research has shown that the following methods will be most effective at preventing identity theft or fraud:
• Freeze your credit. With a credit freeze, no one can open any form of credit in your name.

• Request your own credit report each year and check the reports for inaccuracies and new lines of credit issued that you did not request. If you've been the target of identity fraud, check the data every six months. (In the United States, you are permitted a free copy of your credit report once a year from any credit reference agency. See http://www.annualcreditreport.com for further details).

• Credit reference agency
• Experian
• Credit Bureau

• Minimize the use of mail for sending or receiving financial documents, checks, and have your name removed from junk mail lists (8% of identity fraud results from stolen mail). Mail letters from the post office. In America, where standalone mailboxes are common, install a lock on the box.

• Check your bank accounts each week online or at an ATM. 70% of identity fraud is detected by the victim, and victims who do so through electronic methods suffer losses of less than 1/8th that of those who rely on paper statements for monitoring account activity.

• Shred credit-card receipts, junk mail and other such documents, as they may contain private information.

• Never give out personal information in response to telemarketers and delete all e-mails that claim to be from your bank (or other financial provider) and ask you to "log in" using a hyperlink embedded in the e-mail message. If in doubt as to the legitimacy of such requests, use a telephone to call marketers or financial providers back (rather than directly responding to the telemarketer or company that called or emailed you). See phishing.

• When shopping online, make sure the company is reputable and displays an approved security symbol. Also, make sure you log out of the site when finished.

• If you are a target, keep copies of police reports and records of who you talked to and when, so that you can back up the claim of fraud. Individuals who consider themselves at higher risk of identity fraud should consider purchasing fee-based credit monitoring services, which will notify you of any new accounts or credit inquiries made on your behalf.

• Limit the amount of personal information you publish on the web. Small fragments here and there may be enough for someone to impersonate you in many ways. Be especially careful with information used as security keywords for banks, e.g. mother's maiden name and give your bank a different word (e.g. Password) instead of the real maiden name.

• Don't divulge personal information such as date of birth to organisations that have no need of it - nearly all commercial organisations.

• Don't routinely carry identity documents unless obliged by law to do so.

• Do not allow anyone to copy your identification documents. If commercial organizations require you to submit a copy as a condition of doing business either don't do business with them, or retrieve the copy when your business ends (a written statement that they have not taken further copies should be obtained).

• If someone calls you claiming to be from a financial institution you do business with asking for personal information - do not give it to them. Ask them why they want the information, hang up, and then call the institution (using contact information from a source other than the caller)

In the USA:
• Don't order checks preprinted with your driver's license or social security number. If you can keep your address off them, do so.

• Don't carry your social security card. Don't give out the number unless it is absolutely necessary or legally required (employers, landlords etc.). In states where your driver's license number is your social security number, be equally careful about who sees your license.
identtiy

See also:
• Credit Card
• Credit Score
• Credit Risk
• Debt
• TransUnion

• Tips For Getting Your First Credit Card

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Identity Theft".