How Does Identity Theft Work?
While you might have heard dire warnings about the need to protect yourself from "identity theft," you may not be sure of exactly what identity theft is, or of the way it can hurt you. In order to protect your personal information from identity theft, you should understand what it really means when someone steals your identity.
How Does Identity Theft Work?
Identity theft happens when someone uses personal identifying information that doesn't belong to them. A victim of ID theft, for example, could have his name and social security number used by someone else. An identity thief might also steal someone else’s birth information or insurance information.
What Is the Reason for ID Theft?
The intent behind identity theft is to make use of the identity of the victim and use it to obtain some type of benefit. For example, if you are the victim of identity theft, you could find that someone else has obtained medical services with your insurance information. The goal of this is to get the medical help without having to pay for it. You could also find that your social security number was used to accomplish something that benefits the identity thief, for example letting the person pass as a citizen to get a job or receive government services or letting the person obtain a credit card that he’ll charge on and not pay the bills for.
What Effect Does Identity Theft Have on Victims?
Identity theft can have a devastating impact on victims. If you are a victim of identity theft, the actual consequences of the criminal act can vary depending upon what the identity thief did and how long they were able to misuse your personal data. For example, the person who stole your data might have obtained a lot of medical services. You may end up receiving medical bills for co-pays and other expenses. You could also end up having inaccurate information in your medical records. In some cases, this might have a seriously adverse impact on your health if doctors or other care providers take actions based on the incorrect information in your records. If the ID thief misused the personal data in order to secure credit, then your consequences may involve a damaged credit score. This could also have an impact on your capability to borrow money later on.
Because identity theft can have such an harmful impact, lots of people will try to protect themselves using tools such as IDENTITY GUARD® in their efforts to spot symptoms of ID theft early and to stop it before it becomes a huge problem. Find out how you can be protected by visiting https://www.identityguard.com.