Since the 1960’s, stealing someone’s identity by whatever means is considered identity fraud but, is more commonly known as identity theft. Think of the movie, Catch Me If You Can based upon Frank Abagnale’ life story, a very famous con man. Frank Abagnale once said in an interview that it is easier in today’s society to steal someone’s identity than it was in the ‘60’s.

Wikipedia puts Identity theft into these categories:

  • business/commercial
  • criminal
  • financial
  • cloning
  • medical

Recently, there is a trend toward Synthetic identity theft.  This trend uses someone’s social security number but, uses another name and birth date.

Criminals have gotten very creative and high tech in getting a person’s personal information from you, your home, social media or government sites.  Some of the things that criminal’s uses are:

  • Stealing mail from your mailbox and/or dumpster diving
  • Pick pocketing
  • Eavesdropping
  • Stealing your fingerprints
  • Sending in an address change to the Post Office
  • Old PC’s hard drives that weren’t destroyed
  • Reading RFID chips from a remote location, i.e.; electronic device that reads credit cards, bus passes, etc.
  • Public records on-line or at your local library
  • Hacking into your PC
  • Advertisements – on-line or in the newspaper that ask for personal information
  • Phishing via computer
  • On-line social networks

There are many other ways to steal your identity and it is up to you to protect yourself as much as possible

If your identity is used criminally it is especially difficult to rectify.  There are national and local criminal data bases that may or may not remove an incorrect record.  So be careful, stay aware, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

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