Identity Theft
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*Criminal: Victim's name is provided to the law enforcement to avoid charges in thief/criminal's name. | *Criminal: Victim's name is provided to the law enforcement to avoid charges in thief/criminal's name. | ||
*Governmental: Victim’s information used to obtain government benefits (employment, driver’s license, welfare, etc.). | *Governmental: Victim’s information used to obtain government benefits (employment, driver’s license, welfare, etc.). | ||
| - | *Cloning: Usually refers to the combination of other identity types or categories(because of this it is considered the most serious). | + | *Cloning: Usually refers to the combination of other identity types or categories (because of this it is considered the most serious). |
Revision as of 22:23, 30 November 2007
Identity Theft - (also known as Identity Fraud) refers to crimes in which personal information is obtained without person’s and used by a criminal or an impostor to commit a fraud or a crime usually for the purpose of economic gain. Some information commonly used by the thieves is: social insurance number (SIN), driver's license, credit card or bank information, birth certificate, passport etc.
Contents |
Types
Identity theft is usually divided into two main types based on the uses of stolen information:
- True Name Identity Theft : Refers to the situation in which stolen personal information is used to open new accounts or obtain services (criminal/thief adopts your identity).
- Account Takeover Identity Theft : Refers to the situation in which stolen information is used to gain access to existing accounts (criminal/thief uses your personal information).
Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a California based nonprofit organization working on prevention and understanding of identity theft, actually sub-divides identity theft into four different types or categories based on information provided by the victims. According to their annual victimization survey report, Identity Theft: The Aftermath 2006, ITRC uses the following four types:
- Financial:Includes both account takeover and creation of new account (this is statistically the most reported type).
- Criminal: Victim's name is provided to the law enforcement to avoid charges in thief/criminal's name.
- Governmental: Victim’s information used to obtain government benefits (employment, driver’s license, welfare, etc.).
- Cloning: Usually refers to the combination of other identity types or categories (because of this it is considered the most serious).
