Identity theft is a term used to describe the fraud of using someone else’s identity for money or any personal gain. The internet has become a necessity for many people, and ID theft is an easier crime for criminals to commit as a result. But don’t be fooled, ID theft on the internet is just a percentage of ID fraud crimes.

Different Types

Just like there are multiple ways “to skin a cat”, there are several ways to have your good name stolen. If we know how we are vulnerable, we will be better able to decide what ID theft protection service suits us best.

The 5 types of ID theft are…

…Character/Criminal,
Social Security,
Financial,
Driver’s License
and Medical ID Theft.

Character/Criminal

This is when someone actually commits a crime with your name. They could commit a drug trafficking crime or a money laundering crime. The repercussions of this happening to you are obvious.

Social Security

As you know, our social security number is used for a number of different things. How about an illegal alien using your SSN to get a job? They may not pay the taxes that have accumulated. This becomes relatively important down the line when you get a notice from the IRS saying that you owe additional taxes because you are now in a different tax bracket.

There have been reports of people having 35-40, 80, even 100 or more people using their social security number in up to 40 different states.

Financial

A major point to remember in this area is that there is no such thing as “zero liability”. Most people don’t find out their identity has been stolen until 14 months after it occurs. When someone creates a debt in your name, and you don’t deny that debt within 60 days, you are responsible to pay it off.

Financial identity theft is becoming more serious now because the financial institutions are beginning to enforce “regulation E”. This requires you to pay the debt even though you had nothing to do with the debt accumulated.

A lot of financial identity theft can be committed over the internet. This “cybercrime” sweeps the nation when a criminal decides to hack into a data base in any major institution. The information they can obtain is crucial, and could be devastating to you from a financial standpoint.

Driver’s License

When someone steals your driver’s license identity, what they have done is taken your drivers license number and maybe got a DUI or DWI in your name. You find out, at a routine traffic stop, that there is a warrant out for your arrest because you didn’t attend court. You then find yourself behind bars for something that you didn’t do.

A driver’s license is essentially our national ID system. When you show up at an airport you’re going to need your driver’s license. In fact, you could be fine in the state you leave from but then go to another state and try to get back on the plane; only to find there’s an outstanding warrant for you there.

Medical

With the costs of medical insurance going through the roof, medical identity theft is getting very out of hand. Imagine someone gets a hold of your social security number and tests positive for AIDS under your name rather than in their name. That could affect your ability to get a job or your ability to get insurance.

A thief may just want to enjoy your insurance benefits. This will affect your lifetime cap. If you have one million dollars worth of coverage in a lifetime and you find out five or six hundred thousand of it has been used up by someone who had a bad illness under your name, this could obviously have an impact on your insurance.

A popular way to steal medical ID is to go in the hospital and get a procedure done with a stolen (counterfeited) insurance card. Now the hospital will put in your record that you have had your appendix taken out or you were diagnosed with diabetes. This could result in a terrible outcome when you actually come in for a procedure.