What is Identity Theft? 8 Ways To Prevent It

Identity theft arises when someone steals your information and claims to be you to commit fraud or to benefit from it.

Your personal identification information can include your complete name, address, email address, online login and credentials, social security number, driver’s license number, passport, or bank number. Once the hackers have access to this information, it may be used to empty your bank account or selling the information on the Dark Web.

What is Identity Theft?

There are plenty of ways of accessing your personal data, for example, a hacker overhears you reading your credit card number on a call, purchases your information through the dark web after a data breach, or obtains your information anyhow. The next stage in the identity theft process is the use of this information.

Here are a few examples of what identity theft can do with your sensitive personal data.

• Use your existing debit cards to make unauthorized purchases.
• Submit a tax return using your Social Security number to collect your refund on taxes.
• Use your health insurance to get a medical facility.
• Use your identity and financial information to pass a job background check or rent an apartment.

Types of Identity Theft

Synthetic Identity Fraud

Synthetic Identity Fraud involves stealing a victim’s social security number and linking it to a new name, date of birth, and other personal information needed essentially for creating a “new” person.

New Account Fraud

The thief typically uses this to purchase products and services using the strong credit score of the victim’s credit card. Common types of new accounts fraud involve opening a new service, cell phone, and/or credit card accounts.

Medical Identity Theft

Where the thief steals information such as health insurance numbers to receive medical care. The victim can receive huge bills from the health provider. This can be seen as the services they used from the victim’s account.

Financial Identity Theft

The type of identity theft is the most common. Financial identity theft uses a stolen identity for economic gains.

How Does Identity Theft Take Place?

Identity theft may use several means to acquire your personal information. Some instances are given below:

Phishing

Cybercriminals send out fraudulent emails or SMS that seem authentic to you. These e-mails or text links contain links to download malicious software (commonly called malware) on your computer. The malware can extract personal information and send it to a local computer. This information is used by cyber thieves for theft of identity or to sell on the dark web. It is wise to never open such messages, links, or download any attachments.

Wi-Fi hacking

Some public Wi-Fis are not encrypted. This could give hackers an opportunity to spy on your device. If your device is prone to malware, cybercriminals can insert malware into the system to allow them to access your information.

Sometimes cybercriminals create a fake Wi-Fi hotspot with names that sound like a legitimate network. Identity thieves can view and steal the information that passes across the rogue network. Before connecting, always check the spelling of the network name. And take an additional precaution to use a VPN when connecting to public Wi-Fi, especially when you access your bank account details or buy something online.

Data Breaches

After a data breach, your personal information is most likely to be sold on the dark web. Sometimes data breaches put a risk of leaking millions of people’s personal information. For example, the Equifax data breach revealed up to 147 million people’s personal data.

Malware

Criminals use many strategies to install malware on a particular device. The cybercriminals might access the smartphone and information stored on the device with malware. The types of malware include viruses, spyware, trojans, and keyloggers.

Signs of Identity Theft

• Victims notice withdrawals from their bank account not made by them.
• An affected credit score.
• Victims will stop receiving any mails or bills that contain sensitive information.
• Also, Victims see fake accounts and charges on their credit reports.
• Victims are rejected from the health plan as they reflect no disease they are claiming in their reports.
• Also, Victims are notified by the IRS that they have filed another tax return from their name.
• Victims are notified about a data breach from the organization that stores their personal and sensitive information.

How to Prevent Identity Theft?

Here are a few easy techniques to protect yourself against identity theft:

• Create strong passwords, for each device and for each account. There is a minimum of twelve letters, digits, and symbols in a strong password. You can also build a long passphrase that would be difficult, but simpler to remember, for a criminal to decode. If you are being suspicious that your account has been hacked, change your password right away.
• Allow multi-factor authentication on all the accounts that offer it.
• Do not reveal your personal details - particularly when you are on a phone call publicly.
• Before throwing things away, shred documents. This could include mail, receipts, bills, and all other documents containing sensitive information.
• Keep your Medicare card, debit, and credit cards at home in a safe place. Just carry in your wallet what you usually need.
• Browse secure websites with”HTTPS” appearing at the starting of the URL (the “s” stands for “secure”).
• Keep an eye on your accounts frequently and check your credit reports for changes that aren’t made by you.
• Do not click links, open attachments, or react to unknown or untrusted e-mails. These could include malware.

To Sum Up

Identity theft is the most reported crime in recent years. It is not confined to your financial information. Criminals can commit medical identity stealing and use your insurance information to obtain medical care. Children can also be victimized by kid identity theft. Criminals potentially obtain personal information from a child and sell it on the dark web.

It is a good idea to regularly check your credit card reports and statements to ensure everything is correct and accurate.