What Is Identify Theft?
Many people have the idea that identity theft just involves the theft of numbers -- your credit score, your credit card and bank account numbers, your Social Security number. The actuality of identity theft is far more horrifying -- they are not just stealing your money, but your reputation and good name. You could even say that the criminal is trying to to become you.
A lot of identity theft is still simple credit card or check fraud, maxing out your credit cards and emptying your bank account to buy things the thief wants. However, identity theft has moved beyond being an interpersonal form of embezzlement to encompass a wide variety of fraudulent behavior in which one person masquerades as another.
Instead of stopping at draining your existing accounts, many identity thieves will open additional lines of credit in your name and immediately spend it all. Sometimes they will actually keep and use their ill-gotten purchases, but often they will simply fence them at a pawn shop for pennies on the dollar and use the money for drugs. Although ID is generally required to pawn something, it poses little trouble for this sort of criminal, for he or she can then use the same ID that was used to fraudulently create those lines of credit in the first place.
Illegal immigration has become a major source of criminal identity fraud. The most glaring incidence of illegal immigrant identity theft involved several of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks, but it's far more common for illegal immigrants to steal the identities of people who have the right to work in the US and creating false identity documents in order to get jobs they are not entitled to. The victim then gets to deal with the IRS dunning them for wages they never earned.
Another growing form of identity fraud is the theft of one's medical identity. These thieves are interested in obtaining medical care under your health insurance, and can not only damage your ability to get health benefits, but can screw up your actual health care by getting false information into your medical records.
Identity thieves have also used falsified identities to do illegal things for which they could then blackmail the rightful owner of that identity, creating an additional stream of extorted funds. Other identity thieves have simply wanted to take revenge on someone they were angry at, besmirching their reputations by creating false information about the victim.
Whatever the motives of the criminals who commit identity theft, the effects upon the victim are the same -- an agony of humiliation that can rip one's life apart for months or years to come. Often it is almost impossible to repair the damage done to one's credit record, and catching the criminals is so difficult that you may not even have the cold comfort of knowing that they're sitting in the slammer doing hard time for wrecking your life.
Like so many other unpleasant things in life, it is far easier to prevent criminal identity fraud than to remedy the damage after the thieves have struck. Although protecting yourself may seem daunting, there are actually a number of relatively simple things you can do that can greatly reduce your risk of becoming a victim. Just as you lock the doors of your house and car, you can lock up your identity and discourage those who would steal it.
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