Consumer Beware... Identity Theft Tools & Techniques
The Tools Used In Identity Theft
Identity theft is very quickly becoming the crime of choice for
thousands of criminals worldwide. With online Internet access to
just about any kind of database you want becoming easier and
easier to acquire, the crime of Identity Theft is becoming so
easy, a child could do it, if they are even mildly adept at
using a computer.
So how does identity theft occur? Below are some of the ways you
can become a victim
Identity Theft From The Dead:
The goal here is to scour through newspapers obituary columns to
find out who has died lately. Then once you get a list of the
dearly departed and their addresses, you go over to their homes
and grab any mail that is laying around. Some of the items used
in identity theft are bank statements, credit card receipts, tax
bills, and utility bills. They will even go through the garbage
looking for anything that will help the perpetrators with the
identity theft
This may take a few days maybe up to a month, but you can be
sure that many of the dearly departed's loved ones are to
traumatized & busy with other details to stop credit card bills
and invoices from creditors from being sent out.
Another way to exploit those who have left this earth, is to
make an appointment with a realtor to view the property of the
newly deceased. Once inside, the thieves will go through the
house looking for mail, invoices, even ID that may still be in
the house, literally anything that will help the crooks with the
identity theft of your loved on. Scotland just had over 7000
dead identity theft victims in a recent crime spree perpetrated
by Scottish gangs.
Statistics say that around 30 percent of all ID thefts occur by
stealing the identity of a dead person.
High Tech Identity Theft:
One of the laziest ways to perpetrate identity theft, is to
place a computer recording device on a victims computer. Once
this type of spy software is installed, it will capture and
record ALL computer activity... everything from passwords,
banking information & credit card numbers, to private emails &
chat conversations.
The spy software will then relay this information over the
Internet directly into the identity theft criminals email
account. The nice thing for the crooks who operate this way is,
they just let the victims emails pile up in an free untraceable
email account, and then maybe once a month use an email parser
to scan these emails for the information they need to get your
money. This can be a totally automated process. The spy software
is easy to buy off the Internet. There are over 500 types of
this spy software commercially available to anyone who want to
buy it.
Identity Theft Through Mail.
If the crook can get hold of your mail they will easily be able
pull off and identity theft on you, and spoof a lending
institution into granting a bank account to the scammers. They
will simply take a leisurely drive through the country in the
guise of delivering handbills to mailboxes. While they are at
these country mailboxes they will pilfer your mail, Many of us
aren't waiting for our bills with baited breath, so it can be a
couple of months until we realize we haven't received our bills.
By that time the identity theft has occurred and the crooks are
long gone.
The other simpler way to get your mail is to put in a change of
address to the post office and re route your mail to the
identity thieves new post box. This is a common practice, and if
you are on vacation you will be none the wiser.
Identity Theft Through Forged ID:
These tools are a bit more high tech an require some computer
skill, but nevertheless many identity theft has been perpetrated
by generating social security cards, drivers licenses & birth
certificates. The software to do this can be acquired online
freely if you know your way around. All that's required for this
type of identity theft is a computer a printer and a software to
tell the computer how to do what you want.
Identity Theft Through Shopping.
Have you ever been to a restaurant and paid with your credit
card? Do you follow the waiter to the cash register and watch
him as he runs your card through? It's very simple to grab your
credit card numbers including your expiry date and the 3 or 4
digit security code on the back of your card. Then all the crook
has to do to make you a victim of identity theft, is wait a few
weeks and then go on an online shopping spree, using your stolen
credit card information. It will be very unlikely that you will
be able to sort out which retail outlet your card numbers were
stolen from. This type of identity theft is extremely easy to
pull off.