You Date of Birth is worth more than you might think
Do you know that your identity can be stolen and that it can be used in fraudulent activities, putting at risk your assets and those of others?
Do you know that internet and social media have given fraudsters tools of a complete new dimension for identity theft?
In the UK Identity theft is estimated to cost 1.2 Billion GBP, while that cost in the US is estimated to be as much as 50 Billion USD. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.
With the large adoption of internet and our large exposure to social media, we are more than ever vulnerable to identity theft. Fraudsters are multiplying in ingenuity to design new schemes to get ahold of your personal and financial data. But before rushing to plug off the internet cable and retiring to a buddhist temple, what else can be done to help you avoid the theft of your identity? What can we do to protect our social media accounts? And is there a way we can determine if the security of our accounts has not already been compromised?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaLDyrun_Cc
What is identity theft?
If you have watched the movie “Catch me if you can” from which the video above is extracted you might remember how ingenious was the main character in his design of white-collar crimes. Most of us, although admiring the ingenuity of the Frank abagnale, wouldn’t admit that we could fall for such a scheme. However, the truth is that some fraudsters are so good at social engineering that you won’t notice being tricked before it is too late.
White-collar fraud is not so uncommon and its schemes do almost always involve stolen identity. Someone else can pretend to be you and use your identity to have some benefit or commit fraud in impunity.
Identity theft is not just using someone else’s identity, but also the use of their financial information. The most common fraud schemes involve the use of someone else’s payment card together with his identity. This type of fraud is very common in the ecommerce where card-not-present fraud cost millions to the internet industry.
Once someone has the ability to use your identity, the most likely things they will do are:
- Credit Card fraud (26%): Use of stolen card numbers to make a purchase.
- Utilities fraud (18%): Use someone’s identity to open utilities accounts.
- Bank fraud (17%): Use of altered or stolen checks/bank drafts or cards PIN codes.
- Employment fraud (12%): Use of a stolen identity in order to obtain a job.
- Loan fraud (5%): Use of a stolen identity to apply for a credit.
- Government fraud (9%): Identity fraud to acquire new ID documents or government benefits
- Other (13%)
