Identity Theft: A Crime that Can Affect Anyone

There is a crime that has become so prevalent that anyone is vulnerable without the proper precautions. Some have become more familiar with this crime than they ever feared. This crime can devastate your life and cause untold stress. The first step in protecting yourself from identity theft is learning the basics of it. There are three main types of identity theft that affect consumers and one that primarily targets businesses.

Financial identity theft is what people generally think of when they hear the phrase identity theft. It is when the thief uses your identity for unlawful monetary gains. Once they have your personal information they will use it to make financial transactions in your name. Some examples of this would be getting a credit card, a loan from a bank, or writing a check in your name. For many people they don't even know this is going on until they start getting collection calls for unpaid bills in their name.

Some will try to steal an identity to escape their pasts. They may wish to have their mistakes erased, like poor financial decisions or a criminal record. Their solution is to steal your identity and pretend to be you. They'll take your information and then basically just try to live your life. They will apply for jobs in your name, bank in your name, and do pretty much everything else by your name. While not all of these particular thieves have a malicious intent it can for obvious reasons still cause major problems when you have someone using your name for everything that they do.

Another type of identity theft is commonly called criminal identity theft. This occurs when someone gives a law enforcement official another person's information. This information could include but isn't limited to the victim's name, address, social security number, or driver's license number. It isn't uncommon for them to even have a form of ID with this false information on it. The consequences for the victim of this are getting convictions on their record that they weren't responsible for. This could range from a speeding ticket or DUI to felonies.