The History of Identity Theft

The history of identity theft dates back to the beginning of time. Criminals have always targeted innocent people for their wealth or power. The introduction of computers and the internet has made it easier, and more frequent, but the history of identity theft is lengthy.

For centuries, people would either kill someone of considerable wealth or just assume their identity upon their death. There was no means of identification similar to our drivers license or social security numbers, so criminals just had to get beyond facial recognition in order to pass as someone else. It was easy for those bold enough to go to such lengths.

This is a pretty ugly history of identity theft, but even prior to the internet, people could access our information easily.

In fact, over 60% of identity theft occurs without the use of a computer.

In the mid-20th century credit cards were difficult to get. The process to obtain a credit card was similar to todays method of getting a mortgage. Lenders needed more information, and PROOF of identification in order to issue a credit card. During the eighties and nineties, the credit boom really took off and more people than ever had access to easier money. This resulted in the begininng of "credit reports" and the FICO score was officially introduced in the eighties as a means of judging an individuals credit capability.

...they went dumpster diving! Sounds like fun, eh?!

"Dumpster diving" was and still is a common practice of identity thieves where they literally get in dumsters, or garbage of some sort, and search for personal information. In fact, this is how my grandma had her identity stolen. The punks apparantly went dumpster diving at her retirement home, stumbled upon her checkbook, and started writing checks to themselves, forging her signature. This happens all the time!

Even if you know very little about identity theft and how to prevent it, you probably know that the first step in prevention is to shred your personal information, especially things like your checkbook.

So, criminals largely relied on dumpster diving, but those more ambitious criminals would either rob, steal purses, and pickpocket wallets. Another frequent practice was to simply open someone's mailbox and steal their mail. Criminals could get access to all kinds of personal information using this technique.

Of course, as we all know, the history of identity theft became much more sophisticated when the internet took over our lives. Many of those ridiculous emails you get in your junk email folder are clever ways of getting your attention and then spilling over your personal information. I can just picture a crook on the other end, sitting at his computer waiting for someone to give him their personal info. Fortunately, I think most of these punks do such a bad job of disguising their emails that we know better than to open them.

The online world is huge, and high risk for all of us interested in protecting our identities and our money. However, remember that over 60% of victims have their identities stolen OFFLINE. Educate yourself as much as possible to protect yourself from both online and offline thieves. The history of identity theft is long, dont become a part of this history.

Return to home page from the history of identity theft