Identity theft is a type of fraud which involves stealing money or gaining other

benefits by pretending to be someone else. Having your identity taken can

be financially and emotionally devastating.

Identity theft can occur in many ways from somebody using your credit card

details illegally to make purchases to having your entire identity assumed by

another person to open bank accounts, take out loans and conducting

illegal business under your name.

Identity theft works in a range of ways from crude methods to well organised

scams.

Many of us have a wealth of personal information readily available cards in

our wallet, mail, public records, information saved in our computers and

information posted on social networking sites.

Identity theft can happen easily and

quickly. By leaving your personal

information readily available, scammers will

have easy access to this information. For

example, scammers will pay people to

rummage through rubbish tips and steal

letters to collect personal information.

3 million of those identities are that of

deceased people.

Child identity theft is also a common type

of identity thief. Children have no public information, public records or any

other information associated with their social security number, making the

identity of a child very valuable. Children are being targeted 35 times more

often than adults.

There lots of different forms of identity theft, for example:

Identity cloning and concealment

In this situation, the identity thief impersonates someone else in order to

conceal their own true identity. Examples might be illegal immigrants, people

hiding from creditors or other individuals, or those who simply want to

become "anonymous" for personal reasons. Another example are posers, a

label given to people who use somebody else’s photos and information

through social networking sites. Mostly, posers create believable stories

involving friends of the real person they are imitating. Unlike identity theft used

concealment may continue indefinitely without being detected, particularly

if the identity thief is able to obtain false credentials in order to pass various

authentication tests in everyday life.

Criminal identity

When a criminal fraudulently identifies himself to police as another individual

at the point of arrest, it is sometimes referred to as "Criminal Identity Theft." In

some cases criminals have previously obtained state-issued identity

documents using credentials stolen from others, or have simply presented

fake ID. Provided the subterfuge works, charges may be placed under the

victim's name, letting the criminal off the hook. Victims might only learn of

such incidents by chance, for example by receiving court summons,

discovering their drivers licenses are suspended when stopped for minor

traffic violations, or through background checks performed for employment

purposes

Medical identity theft

Medical identity theft occurs when someone uses a person's name and

sometimes other parts of their identity—such as insurance information—

without the person's knowledge or consent to obtain medical services or

goods, or uses the person’s identity information to make false claims for

medical services or goods. Medical identity theft frequently results in

erroneous entries being put into existing medical records, which may in turn

lead to inappropriate and potentially life-threatening decisions by medical

staff.

The best way to

protect your identity

is to be careful what

information about

yourself you put

public on online

shopping sites, social

networking sites etc,

and also to shred

letters notes and mail before chucking them

in the bin.