Identity Theft

Identity theft is fast becoming one of the most common types of fraud that are committed all over the world. This is where a person pretends to be someone they are not mainly to obtain credit, money and other benefits.  The victim of identity theft usually ends up suffering serious consequences especially if they are held accountable of the actions performed by the perpetrator. Organizations can also end up suffering huge losses as a result of this. Determining the link between identity theft and data breaches is difficult because the victims do not know how the criminals got their information. There are different categories of identify theft including:

Identity concealment and cloning

Id theft in this case is committed so that someone can hide their true individuality. These can be people who are hiding from other individuals and creditors, immigrants and persons who want to remain anonymous for one reason or another. This can remain hidden for a long time especially when the thief obtains false credentials to pass a number of authentication tests in life.

Criminal identity theft

This usually happens when a person is arrested and they give out the personal details of another individual. If this works,  the police end up charging the wrong person for the crime that was committed.  The victims are usually taken by surprise when they receive court summons, discover that their driving licenses have been revoked for petty offenses or get shocking information when potential employers carry out a background check on them. It is usually challenging for the victims to clear the records. This is because there are various steps taken by the law to determine the true identity of the person depend on the jurisdiction the crime was committed in. The victim might have to appear in court or use reliable method like fingerprinting to be cleared from the charges.

Synthetic identity theft

This happens when identities are partially or completely fabricated. Here one can combine a real social security number with a date or name that does correspond with the number. This is most common when the thief wants to commit financial theft.  This is difficult to track as it does not reflect directly on an individual’s credit report but it can appear as a sub file or a new file in the credit bureau. This can affect the credit rates of the individual in a huge way where they might not be able to borrow money.

Medical identity theft

This is where an individual can steal another person’s identity to use on their insurance information. This is done without the consent of the owner to obtain medical goods or services. This leads to potentially life threatening and inappropriate decisions made by medical personnel.

For protection, it is important to learn about identity theft to avoid becoming a victim. This is where you should not give out personal details to individuals you don’t trust and report to the police incase you’re documents get stolen. You can also close accounts that have been established fraudulently or have been tampered with for identity theft prevention.