Like most crimes, identity theft can be actually be quite fascinating, even thought it's dangerous and malicious at the same time. Have you ever wondered how it occurs?
Basically, identity theft has occurred when a thief steals another person's confidential information, usually only known to that person, and uses it to assume that person's identity. Usually the thief uses the information for financial gain by committing fraud. Quite often the victim either doesn't know what's happened, or doesn't find out until much later. By then, the criminal has long disappeared into anonymity. The victim is left with a ruined reputation, a credit report full of black marks, unpaid debts and demands for payment.
Even worse, it regularly happens that the victim is arrested as the one responsible for all the fraud, because it's assumed the victim is responsible. After all, it was done using his or her identity. It can take a long time to prove the crimes were committed by an identity thief, and even longer for the consequences of the identity theft to be removed. The victim can suffer for years.
The rise of the internet has made it much easier for computer savvy criminals to hack into classified information and steal identities. This has resulted in an alarming increase in identity theft followed by fraud.
Banks have always been the target of criminals, and stealing identities through bank records has been in existence for a long time. Now stealing bank information is one of the major ways a criminal can profit from identity theft. Sometimes the thief will make regular withdrawals from a bank account until it is wiped clean. Another option is to use the stolen identity to apply for loans and credit cards. Once the criminal has personal information, he can obtain a driver's license, and getting credit from banks becomes much simpler. All the statements go to a temporary address belonging to the thief, so the victim has no idea what's going on.
If the criminal picks his target well, by the time he's drained all the bank accounts and maximized his borrowings, he can walk away with potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. By the time the victim realizes what's happened and proves it wasn't him, the chances of finding the criminal are extremely low. He's long since disappeared. Laws have become tighter, but sadly the number of victims is still rising every year.
Some of the things to watch out for, that may signal you're the victim of identity theft, include:
Identity theft is a serious crime, with consequences that can last for years. Be diligent about your finances, and with any luck it either won't happen to you, or you'll discover it before it's too late.
