By: Tony Francis
Submitted: 2010-02-21 07:03:52 | Word Count: 532
According to statistics approximately 8.5 million American adults became victims of identity theft in the year 2005. This is an alarming number considering the fact that this kind of crime can inflict serious damages to a victim’s financial history further more to his or her entire reputation.
Identity theft is similar to the conventional way of stealing for it is also all about someone taking something from you without your knowledge and permission. The difference comes when we start considering the manner to which these two kinds of theft are being implemented.
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Identity theft needs no breaking in to someone else’s house to take something away. Physical presence can actually be eliminated without jeopardizing the main goal of stealing. This crime is an information based type of crime for it uses personal or identification information to make the crime take effect. And since we are now in the age of information technology, our vulnerability to such odious and disparaging crime is on high.
Identity thieves personally profit at the victims’s expense by using information such as the Social Security number, credit card number, bank account number and the like. Also reprobates can use the victim’s driver’s lisence, address & phone numbers or even mails on mail box to gain access to one’s credit lines and loans.
Fraud and deceipt involved in this identity theft can happen over existing credit accounts. This is the most common form of this crime which alarms almost everyone for we now live in a credit based commerce. Thieves in this case use the account directly under the victim’s name to make general purchases. Being the most widely known form this is also the easiest form to detect since all the transactions made under the account can be reported immediately once the credit company issues the credit statement for a certain period of time.
These major purchases done through your credit line can also be seen in your annual credit report from the three main credit bureaus. Since the buying, worse bankruptcy was made under your name this will certainly be recorded on your credit report which will then influence your credit score. This credit score which will define your credit worthiness will definitely be influential in your forthcoming purchases or loans. This is the depth of what this crime can do to its victims.
Furthermore, new accounts can also be created under your personal information without your knowledge. Thieves can then steal as much money as they could with this newly created account at your risk and can leave you with nothing but trouble. This can cause wrecked credit lines since the transactions of creating a new account under the victims’s name can for a long time remain unknown for the victim.
This crime can also happen in non credit existing accounts like ATM accounts. Identity theft is a crime that can be accomplished in several different channels thus it is best to be preventive and cautious about it. Our credit “credibility” is one important aspect that we can take advantage of in today’s economy if we know how to avoid the threats posting over it like this identity theft.
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Things like reviewing our free annual credit reports is a step further that can help our credit report score really reflect how we manage our financial responsibilities. For more information about identity theft
