You should review your bank account statements regularly; if you see unknown purchases, that could be a sign that your identity has been stolen. Check credit reports. Similarly, monitor your credit reports from all three credit-reporting bureaus for any unknown accounts or inaccurate information.
The best way to find out if someone has opened an account in your name is to pull your own credit reports to check. Note that you'll need to pull your credit reports from all three bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — to check for fraud since each report may have different information and reporting.
Fraud alerts are free and require companies to verify your identity before opening any new accounts in your name or changing any existing accounts. Another option is to contact each of the credit bureaus to add a credit freeze. Freezing your credit prevents anyone but you from accessing your credit.
Can thieves steal identities with only a name and address? In short, the answer is “no.” Which is a good thing, as your name and address are in fact part of the public record. Anyone can get a hold of them. However, because they are public information, they are still tools that identity thieves can use.
Few people realize that your identity can be stolen with just your ID. That's because, for a criminal to steal your identity, they need access to your personally identifiable information (PII).
Never send anyone a picture of your ID. Hackers and cybercriminals can access cloud photo databases to steal your ID. If your phone is stolen or hacked, your ID will be exposed. If you have any photos of your ID stored on your computer, mobile device, in text messages, etc.
Contact your police department, report the crime and obtain a police report. Decide whether you want to place a security freeze on your credit report.
This offense, in most circumstances, carries a maximum term of 15 years' imprisonment, a fine, and criminal forfeiture of any personal property used or intended to be used to commit the offense.
The three most common types of identity theft are financial, medical and online. Learn how you can prevent them and what to do if they happen to you.
Phone hacking can compromise your identity and privacy without you even knowing. Fraudsters continuously evolve and improve hacking methods, making them increasingly harder to spot. This means the average user might be blind sighted by any number of cyberattacks.
The most common reason why people commit identity theft and other white-collar crimes is for financial benefit. By committing identity theft, individuals may: Take out loans. Make purchases using other people's credit cards.
Identity thieves could potentially gather information on you from images that you share online. A photo posted on your birthday, for example, would provide them with your date of birth, whereas a photo of a new house could potentially give them details of where you live.
Report the fraud
Report the matter to your local police, and ask for a police report or reference number so you have evidence that you reported the issue. Contact the organisation or agency that issued your identity document and your financial institution and tell them what happened.
Physical Theft: examples of this would be dumpster diving, mail theft, skimming, change of address, reshipping, government records, identity consolidation. Technology-Based: examples of this are phishing, pharming, DNS Cache Poisoning, wardriving, spyware, malware and viruses.
The easiest way to become a victim of a bank scam is to share your banking info — e.g., account numbers, PIN codes, social security number — with someone you don't know well and trust. If someone asks for sensitive banking details, proceed with caution.
A thief could plug your name and address into a publicly searchable database to see what other pieces of information can be found. One website charges as little as a dollar for reports that include someone's phone numbers, marriage and divorce records, education records, employment history, and more.
Identity theft is a federal crime, and in some cases the offender can even go to jail, so this isn't a light issue. Someone opening a credit card in your name or using your Social Security number needs to be stopped as soon as possible.
In most cases, either state law or the terms of the account provide that you usually cannot remove a person from a joint checking account without that person's consent, though some banks may offer accounts where they explicitly allow this type of removal.