How Your Identity Can Be Stolen

Identity Theft in the Home

• Steal your mail: If your mailbox is unlocked or unattended, your mail can easily be stolen. Identity thieves steal incoming and outgoing mail, including bank statements, credit card bills, shipments of new checks, and tax forms.
• Access your personal papers: Identity thieves can be people you admit into your home, such as contractors, repairmen, housekeepers, and other household employees—or sometimes even neighbors, tenants, roommates, and relatives. Keep all bills and other paperwork out of view and in locked or secure drawers or file cabinets.
• Dumpster dive in your trash: Your trash contains old bills and statements, cancelled checks, preapproved credit card offers, and pay stubs, all of which are useful to identity thieves.
• Defraud you by phone: Identity thieves can use telephone scams to trick you into providing personal information over the phone. For instance, a thief might pose as a representative from your credit card company and ask you to “confirm” information such as your account number and expiration date.

Identity Theft in the Workplace

• Steal your personal belongings: Unattended purses, wallets, and briefcases are prime targets for identity thieves. Any easily accessible personal documents that you keep at work are also subject to theft.
• Access your personnel file: Anyone with access to the paper or electronic personnel files in the Human Resources department of your office can obtain your Social Security number and date of birth, as well as a host of other personal data.

Identity Theft in Public

• Stealing purses, wallets, or items in cars: Identity thieves often use purse-snatching, pickpocketing, and “smash and grab” car break-ins to steal personal information. They also may gain information from lost bags, wallets, and other belongings.
• Shoulder surfing: Shoulder surfing occurs when someone looks over your shoulder while you’re at an ATM and reads your PIN as you type it in. This method can also be used to capture calling card numbers at pay phones.
• Skimming credit cards: Skimming occurs when someone to whom you’ve given your credit card for payment (such as a cashier or waitperson) swipes the card into a portable electronic device, gathering all the personal information the card contains.

Identity Theft Online

• Phishing: Phishing occurs when thieves use the façade of a legitimate company to solicit personal information. For example, you might receive an email that appears to be from a real business (such as your bank or credit card company) that asks you to update your account information. The email provides a link to a seemingly legitimate website where you’re asked to enter your account number, username, password, and other private information.
• Spyware: Spyware is software that collects personal data from your computer without your knowledge or permission. Spyware can infect your computer when you visit certain websites, open software programs you’ve downloaded, or click on malicious email attachments from unknown or suspicious senders. In addition, anyone with physical access to your computer can install spyware manually. Such software works in two ways:
  • Backdoor entry: Provides thieves with remote online access to your computer.
  • Keystroke logging: Allows thieves to record the keystrokes you enter on your keyboard, which enables them to capture information (such as online banking passwords and account numbers) as you type it.
• Fraudulent shopping sites: Some identity thieves set up fraudulent e-commerce sites offering various goods and services that they advertise through spam (unsolicited email) or on online price comparison sites. When you place an order on the fraudulent site, the thief can obtain your name, address, and credit card number and expiration date.
• Wireless snooping: Tech-savvy identity thieves can connect to unsecured wireless networks and steal private information directly from computer files and data transmissions.

Identity Theft from Third Parties

• Steal records from your employer: Employees with access to sensitive personal information may steal it and commit fraud themselves or sell it to others.
• Pay employees who have access to the records: Thieves may pay cash to employees who have access to and are willing to sell personal information.
• Dumpster dive in a business’s trash: Many businesses discard unshredded documents, leaving information vulnerable to identity theft.
• Hack into a business’s records online: Tech-savvy identity thieves can gain access to the computer systems of companies that don’t use secure networks.
• Access your credit report illegally: A thief might pose as a lender, landlord, or employer to obtain a copy of your credit report.