Identity Theft

Identity theft effects almost 10 million people a year in the US alone! Preventing identity theft is not as hard as it may seem. This is a non-commercial site with the sole purpose of helping you prevent identity theft. In other words, we are not selling anything and you do not have to pay us for advice! This is a free service to help you protect yourself and your family from becoming victims of identity theft.

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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.

Watching the simple things is one the easiest way to protect against identity theft. The following is a list of the "simple things" that are easy to do and cost very little money, but are very effective against identity theft.

Simple Steops to Preventing Identity Theft

Don't sent mail from your home mail box - when sending mail most of us just stick it in out home mailbox for the mailman to pick up. This makes it very easy for others to come by and learn about our personal information (what companies we have accounts with, what bank we use, etc.). Instead of leaving your mail in your home mail box, take it to a post office box that does not permit anyone to retrieve it (except the mailman with a key).

Shred all documents that have personal information on them - one of the easiest ways for your identity to be stolen is through your trash. Especially for those of us who recycle (which I hope everyone does). Remember though, that recycling bins are usually quite clean and easy to rummage through. It is important to buy a paper shreder and shred anything that has your name on it or any other personal information.

Stop Junk Mail - one of the most effective ways to reduce the chances of identity theft, is to limit the number of people who have access to your personal information. Most of us get way more junk mail than necessary. Stopping junk mail is one of the best places to start. Learn how to stop junk mail.

More tips for preventing identity theft >

Identity Theft Online

Know what Google knows - you should know what other people can find out about you by searching online. It is a good idea to occasionally search for yourself ("google yourself") to see what comes up. If there is information that you don't want other people to know, you can contact the site owners and have that information removed. It is amazing how many people don't have any idea what personal information is available just by searching on the internet.

Be careful with pictures - As great as photo sharing sites (like Flickr) are, they can be dangerous for identity theft reasons. Avoid posting pictures of you or your family in public places. There are other sites (like MyFamily.com) that allow password protected areas for sharing photos.

How Identity Theft Happens

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.

Identity Theft Statistics

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.

Increase and contributing factors

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.

In the United Kingdom, companies such as car hire agencies, car dealerships, solicitors and banks now routinely take a copy of identity documents as a condition of doing business. This practice means that the subject is, in effect, losing control of his identity documents.

As a result of data protection legislation in the United Kingdom many organisations now require telephone callers to disclose personal details such as date of birth and mother's maiden name before they will enter into discussion. This allows eavesdroppers to collect this valuable data.

U.S. Identity fraud crimes now total $52.6B annually (up 2.3% from the previous survey), with a per-individual total of $5,686 per victim, according to the Javelin study. The Javelin random-sample study further showed that individual victims in the U.S. spend an average 28 hours restoring their affairs, while the majority of their costs are reimbursed by financial providers, who in turn pass much of the cost on to merchants or other service providers.

Contrary to popular belief, illegal access to personal information often happens through traditional means such as paper financial statements, cheques or credit cards, and the perpetrator is often someone previously known to the victim, such as a "friend", family member, or acquaintance.