By: Tony Francis
Submitted: 2009-12-16 14:01:16 | Word Count: 511
Identity theft is a crime committed by theft of personal information, creating a false identity, and using it to commit identity fraud. This black market industry costs the world governments and financial bodies billions of dollars. It also causes personal financial problems for the victims who often have no idea that they have become victims until the damage has been done.
Criminals often commit identity theft by stealing your personal information through unique schemes involving robbery, fraud, and deception. They often take personal documents from the trash bins and rubbish dumps of unsuspecting victims. They intercept mail deliveries from banks and other financial entities. They contact victims and by using false identities try to recover important personal information directly from them.
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They even use new technological advances for identity theft like internet phishing websites that pretend to be legitimate banking, financial, or retail websites, to mine personal and banking information and use card scanners that copy the magnetic information on credit and ATM cards.
These individuals use your personal information for a variety of illegal activities. Some of them apply for a credit card or credit line from multiple banks without any intention of paying them which is known as credit identity theft. Other than that they also apply for cash loans and run up debts by using your credit card information to purchase products that they can use themselves or sell in the black market. They can also use your personal information to create and copy your identity as cover for their illegal activities such as driving licenses, passports, and other identification cards. They can also apply for service using your name such as mobile phone contracts and other service billings that rely on identity tracking.
There are hundreds of ways to protect yourself from identity theft, online identity fraud, and credit identity theft but they all focus on one thing, and that is protecting your personal information. There are also a lot of identity theft check systems like Free Credit Reports.com being on the internet to help you protect your personal information.
The first thing to ensure is that you should never give away your personal information to anyone that you don t really have to tell. Then you should always take a good look at your financial reports such as bills and credit reports to ensure that no unauthorized transactions are taking place without your knowledge. It can also be wise to use the identity theft checks of the government agencies which provide the dates of data and identification card request to make sure that no one is obtaining a copy of your credentials other than you.
If you think that you are a victim of identity theft it is important that you immediately contact the concerned government agencies and financial institutions concerned. Your quick report and response can help to catch the criminals in the act and help in their prosecution. Many identity theft victims have successfully helped catch the perpetrators in the act, especially in the case of credit identity theft, with their immediate action.
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This article has been provided by http://www.free-credit-reports.com, where you can compare credit report and identity theft protection services with this comprehensive chart of all credit report and credit score service providers.
