What Is Identity Theft?

Identity theft occurs when someone uses personally identifying information, like your name, social security number, or credit card number without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes. There are five areas of identity theft, financial, medical, social security, driver's license, and character/criminal.

The Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. In fact, you or someone you know may have experienced some form of identity theft.

The crime takes many forms. Identity thieves may rent an apartment, obtain credit cards, get medical insurance, commit crimes, obtain loans, start a business, or establish a telephone account in your name. You may not find out about the theft until you review your credit report or a credit card statement only to find charges you didn't make, you're contacted by a debt collector, the IRS tries to collect taxes you don't owe or learn of a warrant for your arrest.

Identity theft is serious, and has been compared to a financial cancer. You can't always prevent it, and the longer it goes undetected, the more of your life it takes over. In some rare cases it can even be deadly as in examples of medical identity theft. While some identity theft victims can resolve their problems quickly, others spend hundreds to thousands of dollars and many months to years repairing damage to their good name and credit record. Some consumers victimized by identity theft may lose out on job opportunities, denied medical coverage, or be denied loans for education, housing or cars because of negative information on their credit reports. The victim may even be arrested for crimes they did not commit.

The sad fact is that there is nothing that you can do to prevent your information from being stolen. No matter how careful you are in shredding documents, protecting a pass word, social security or pin number, or on the internet, or what you do personally to protect your information, there is information about yourself you cannot control. The I Didn't Tell You This page explains that since your information can't be controlled credit monitoring isn't enough. An easy way to lessen the chance of your identity being stolen is to get onto the opt-out lists. It will also lessen the aggravating dinner time telemarketing calls and cut down on the amount of junk mail you get. You can and should elect to opt-out of pre-approved offers and marketing lists sold by the credit bureaus.

What can you do?

Your personal information is in a number of data bases, and it is constantly being sold, traded and bought. At any time a database with your information can be hacked, or a computer can be stolen containing your information. Your information is also being stored in doctors offices and many types of businesses you deal with every day. Thieves break into the businesses not to steal the goods or property, but to steal your information right from the files stored in these places. The Home page will tell you what identity theft is.

Identity Theft is less risky, incredibly easy, and highly profitable as compared to most other crimes. A thief who robs you at gunpoint and is caught is likely to be sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison. In comparison, an identity thief who steals your identity, opens multiple accounts and gets medical treatment in your name then accrues tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent debt will likely get probation if they are ever caught.

The only realistic option is to purchase a service with a restoration department dealing in all five areas of identity theft. A service that constantly monitors your credit report for activity and the post office for a change of address. This service must also give you access to an attorney that you will need to deal with the legal problems you will have, especially if law enforcement arrests you because of a crime you didn't commit. Until most Americans have some type of identity theft protection with a full suite of services, identity theft will continue get worse at an exponential rate.