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Discover How an Identity Theft Criminal Gets Access to your Personal Information

Identity felt is where a criminal obtains your personal information such as Social Security number, credit card numbers, bank information, address, phone number, and birthday. While the methods used to obtain this information are numerous and varied, certain protective steps can be taken to reduce the chances of this crime happening. In order to protect yourself from identity theft, it is important to understand how a criminal get your information, why it is often difficult to detect your stolen information, and how someone can minimize the possibility of becoming an identity theft victim. It is the goal of this article to explore how an identity theft thief gains access to personal identification and what someone can do to prevent it.

The methods a criminal may use to obtain your personal identification are as varied as the victims themselves and while there is never a guarantee of not becoming a victim, there are certain steps one can take to greatly reduce the danger. While identity theft criminals have developed many ways of gaining access to your personal information and are continuing to come up with new ideas all of the time, the most widely methods used are still the easiest ones to block which can make prevention easier. Below is a list of the most widely used methods an identity theft criminal will use to gain access to your personal information.

1. Dumpster Diving: This the process where a criminal digs through trash, hoping to find discarded items such as credit card bills, bank account statements, and other mail which may include sensitive personal information.

2. Skimming: This is a process where a criminal sets up a special storage device that captures your credit card information when making a purchase.

3. Phishing: This is a newer technique that became available with the advent of the Internet and email. A criminal will pretend to be a representative of a financial institution and will send emails stating that your account appears to have been compromised and lead you to a website where you can straighten things out. This is a scam and you will be asked to verify certain personal information that the thief should not have.

4. Pretexting: Once a criminal already has some of your information, they will contact your bank or creditors and using a bogus excuse will persuade the institution to supply additional information to them.

5. Physical stealing: This is the oldest method around and is just as it sounds. A criminal will simply steal somebodies wallet or purse to see if any sensitive information can be obtained.

Once a criminal has access to the above information, they can, and often do, take steps to guarantee that you wont be aware of any activity until it is too late. Crimes such as this include opening a bank account using your name and Social Security number but with an alternate address so you are not aware of the new account or stealing your credit card number then submitting a change of address so you dont get any bills showing suspicious transactions. Some people may catch on fairly quickly with the credit card scheme because they are no longer getting expected billing statements but often times the new bank account scheme doesnt get caught for quite some time. Either way, the victim may not realize what is going on until they start getting notices from bill collectors for debts that they did not incur and by then it may be too late for a simple solution. Once you know how a criminal can steal your information and hide the fact from you, you need to understand what steps you can take to minimize your risk.

While it is virtually impossible to guarantee complete safety from becoming a victim of identify theft, there are some simple steps that a person can take to eliminate, or at least minimize the risk. First and most important is to always dispose of mail with your personal information in a safe way such as shredding or burning and never putting it in your trash where a criminal can find it. Next is to keep a vigilant eye on your credit history. New laws that have been written during the past few years require the major credit reporting companies to provide free credit reports to Americans four times a year and it is a great idea to take advantage of this. Reviewing your credit history on a quarterly basis gives you a great opportunity to look for discrepancies in your file and if you can manage to catch this type of problem early on, it is much easier to fix. You can and should also pay close attention to your monthly bank statements and credit card billing statements for suspicious activity and if you fail to receive billing that you normally receive, take action immediately and contact your financial institutions to find out why. And if you experience outright theft of personal property such as a wallet or purse, make it a point to cancel all debit and credit cards immediately.

After reading this article, it should now be obvious that anybody, including you, can be affected by the identity theft crime and while law enforcement agencies exist to protect us from crime, they are ill equipped in handling this type of crime. While they may be able to help you after becoming a victim, you will still have a long road ahead in repairing your credit. It is a far easier for an individual to take pro-active steps to avoid becoming a victim rather then trying to repair the damage afterwards. Whether you decide to take such steps on your own or employ an anti identity theft program is up to you but for the sake of you and your family, please take steps today.