Identity theft, also called ID theft, is identified as a crime in which the perpetrator obtains vital pieces of somebody's personal information, for example, their social security, passport, or driver's license numbers, and uses these to claim to be someone else.

The crook then acquires credit, merchandise, services, or another items using the victim's name. Identity theft could perhaps entail posing as an individual otherwise to obtain false credentials with the objective of meeting immigration or citizenship specifications or other proper applications, even getting a job! The gravest risk that such theft induces to the victim is the fact that unless the situation is identified and confirmed to be identity theft, all the actions fully committed by the perpetrator are wrongfully linked to the victim.

The Two Significant Types of Identity Theft

The two most important types of identity theft are direct account takeover, and true name theft.

A case of account takeover identity theft arises when an imposter uses any wrongfully got personal information to access the victim's existing personal accounts and statements.

The identity thief typically uses such a bogus identity to achieve credit products and services, even to the extent of altering your given address or other information like passwords etc., so that the victim either does not get to see the credit card bills that the thief runs up, or perhaps even worse, in which the victim is denied their rightful access or use of the account itself.

However, a true name identity theft relates to a situation in which the crook uses the stolen personal information to activate new accounts. Here the thief often opens a fresh credit card account, obtains a loan, takes a cellular phone connection, or secures a new checking account so as to obtain blank checks.

Solutions like net banking and online business facilities in which transactions can be made without the personal confirmation of the user's identity have allowed identity theft cases to progress rapidly. In these conditions, profiting from the use of stolen personal information is easy because everything that an identity thief now demands to carry out the crime is simply a sequence of correct numbers or letters.

How to Prevent Identity Theft

Masses of hi-tech identity thieves can afford to hack into secured databases and steal personal information. However, the old fashioned methods like rummaging in the garbage so that you can locate discarded receipts and statements, or peeping stealthily while someone is writing out financial information are still the most common ways of stealing personal information.

And that means you should always be careful not to disclose any sensitive personal information to any unauthorized person, and also be careful to ensure the position of anyone claiming to require access to your details. The next time you might want to fill out a lengthy application form, be it at the bank, or at the Department of Motor Vehicles or anywhere else, beware of impostors and prying eyes: you may well be the target of identity thieves.