What Identity theft means
Identify theft or ID Fraud refers to a crime where an offender wrongfully obtains key prices of the intended victim’s personal identifying information such as date of birth, Social Security Number, driver’s s licence number among others and make gain by using that personal data.
Here are the four negative impacts of identity theft…
#1 Financial losses
This type of crime can lead to financial losses for the victim. This because such stolen cards can be used for transaction online and offline without the consent of the owner of such cards.
#2 Criminal charges
Identity thefts can lead to criminal charges for the owner of the failure to report the matter to law enforcement agents immediately. When such stolen identities are used to commit crimes, the owner might be arrested for being the one that commits such crimes.
#3 Denials
Identity theft can lead to several Denials for the victim as he might get low credit rating along the line. This happens when he hacker has used his cards and other vital information to get loans, buy cars and commit other atrocities.
#4 Legal issues
The end result of identity theft might be complicated legal issues that the victim might find it difficult to absolve himself. This might end up draining the purse of the victim.
Here are some of the personal information that can be stolen…
- Passport numbers
- Birth certificates
- Credit card /account numbers
- Driving licence numbers
- Social Security Number
- Names
- Addresses
- Date of birth
- Mother’s maiden name
- Telephone numbers
How do Attackers steal an identity?
#1 Social Engineering
It is an act of manipulating people trust to perform certain actions or divulging private information, without using technical cracking methods.
#2Phishing
Here, fraudster pretends to be a financial institution and send spam/pop up messages to trick the user to reveal personal information. At times they can send email messages, impersonating your bank and asking for sensitive information so that they can have access to your account.
#3 Hacking
Attackers may have the computer system of the victim in order to have access to vital information. That is why you should not store all the item listed above on your system.
#4 Theft of Personal Stuffs
A fraudster may steal wallet and purses, mails including banks and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, band new cheques or tax information.
Now your take on this argument.
We would also like to hear what you feel about the topic we discussed today. Your feedback is very important to us. Feel free to drop your comments and recommendations. If you have a contrary opinion, you can drop that too.
You can also join our Facebook Page CRMNigeria for more updates. You can do that by clicking on the link or searching for our page on Facebook.
You can also join our WhatsApp Group Here.
Kindly Subscribe to CRMNIGERIA Articles by Email