What Are the 5 Types of Identity Theft?

October 24, 2007

Identity theft is quickly becoming the most prevalent white-collar crime in the United States. Sadly, there is much misconception as to what identity theft is. Most consumers believe that identity theft only involves and effects your credit report. This is not true. Identity theft takes many forms that make everyone a potential target for identity theft.

Identity Theft Won’t Happen to Me….Right?

A common belief is that identity theft only happens to those that are well-off or have good credit. That is a completely false belief.

Read on and learn about the various types of identity theft and you will see that virtually everyone has personal information that can be compromised by an identity thief. Not protecting yourself is just like inviting chaos, financial ruin, and possibly legal disaster into your life.

Five types of Identity Theft

All consumers should be aware of the following types of identity theft and their possible consequences.

Credit Card Theft

This type of identity theft is fairly straight-forward. Someone steals your credit card or your credit card account information and uses it to make purchases without your knowledge or consent. One day, an innocent trip to your mailbox shows thousands of dollars you owe for purchases you never made.

Congratulations, you are now the next victim of credit card identity theft.

Most credit card companies offer protection for consumers against this type of identity theft. Most likely, your credit card company has limits of liabilities that you are liable to pay if you report the unauthorized charges in a proper and timely manner. Keep in mind that these limits of liability only apply to credit card transactions and NOT to debit card transactions.

Contact your personal bank for individual policies regarding debit card liability limits.

Drivers License Theft

It happens all the time - one minute you have your wallet, the next minute it’s gone and in the hands of a thief. Most American consumers will have no less than their drivers license in their wallet and may also have credit cards, bank cards, and other sensitive information. This personal information in the wrong hands can truly wreak havoc on your life, no doubt! But, what can an identity theft criminal do with your drivers license?

An identity thief has many avenues of opportunity available with your drivers license information. Simply, they could drive - and get speeding tickets - under YOUR drivers license information. Imagine going through a routine traffic stop and finding out you have bench warrants out for “your”arrest for unpaid speeding and parking tickets! Unfortunately, that is the best case scenario when someone goes afoul with your drivers license.

The information on your drivers license is all an identity thief needs to run a full background check online - and find out more about you then you can imagine. Just check out this site or take a look at this site.

Scary, isn’t it?!?!

For a small fee, anyone with very limited information on you can find out everything about you…and then become “you” as a full blown case of criminal identity theft prevails.

The main objective of Identity-Theft-FAQ.com is to promote identity theft awareness. Part of our job is to expose unknown dangers to your personal information and educate you to help reduce your chances of being an identity theft victim.

Sadly, it takes the average consumer a year or more to realize this is even happening to them.

Criminal Identity Theft

Once your personal identity information has been breached, these seasoned identity theft criminals go on a spree of crime all under your name. Imagine applying for a new job only to be turned down because (surprise!) “you” are a convicted felon.

It happens - often!

This type of identity theft is also referred to as “character identity theft”. In a nutshell, someone assumes your identity and commits crimes resulting in warrants being served for YOUR arrest…and very possible, time in jail before anything gets straighten out. One victim of criminal identity theft was told that once your name is connected with criminal activity, it never really goes away.

Criminal identity theft victims are sadly, “guilty until proven innocent”.

Medical Identity Theft

Medical Identity theft cases are adding up quickly as the cost of medical care continues to rise. In summary, someone steals your identity and/or health insurance information, and receives care under your name. This can result in unpaid medical bills that “you” owe or being turned down for life insurance because according to your medical records, “you” have been treated for cancer, HIV, or addiction.

Identity theft and medical records theft is one of the most un-thought of types of identity theft that all consumers should be aware of.

Social Security Number Theft

Social Security number identity theft is the “jackpot” for identity criminals. Your social security number is the key to everything about you. This type of identity theft does not only happen by simply giving your social security number online. Social security number theft can happen without you ever having any control over it. A carelessly tossed credit application getting into the wrong hands at a business establishment is all it takes - and it can be months, maybe years before you find out. By then, its way too late. So much damage will have been done in your name, to your credit report, and to your name.

If your social security number gets in the wrong hands, all it takes is an internet connection to find out everything about you. If you ever wanted to know how to find someone by their social security number or just find out about someone with their social security number, take a look at this site. Again, for a very low, one-time fee, someone can do social security background-type checks as often as they want. When you take a look at their sample reports, you can see that the information one can obtain from this type of database can be very dangerous if in the wrong hands.

Identity theft CAN happen to you. It can happen to anyone.

How Can I Protect Myself From Being the Next Victim of Identity Theft?

Worst part is, there is nothing you can change to prevent some types of identity theft on your own. Simply changing your spending habits, shredding of your documents, be careful with your online activity, etc is not enough to keep it from happening to you. Nowadays, simply getting someones name, address, and phone number out of a phone book is more than enough information for an identity thief to find out everything they need to bring disaster into your life.

Identity theft vicitims have reported an average of $8000 to repair damage done after being a victim.

The only thing that is guaranteed to protect you is identity theft prevention insurance. While credit reporting companies will alert you AFTER someone has compromised your personal information, identity theft prevention insurance stops it BEFORE it happens. The best identity theft protection comes from Life Lock.