What is Identity Theft?

If you had to define identity theft or if you're just curious to know what is identity theft, its really pretty simple.

Identity theft is when someone other than yourself, obtains some or all of your personal information and uses it for their own personal gain. Often they will use your information for their financial benefit, but this is not always the case. These punks can steal any of your following information: your social security number, drivers license number, medical identity, character or criminal identity, and your financial identity.

Your socal security number is used for many purposes and that makes it a big target for thieves. Your banks, doctors, landlords, and government all have access to this information. All it takes is a shady employee to find your number and begin using it for their benefit.

Say, for example, a crafty illegal alien gets ahold of your social security number. They work hard, get paid, but know they really never have to pay taxes because they have YOUR social security number. Well, when Uncle Sam finds out, YOU will be the one to get the notice from the IRS saying you're getting audited or owe the government some money. More info on social security identity theft

What about if you lose your wallet or purse and someone starts using your drivers license number or drivers license entirely. The drivers license is our national identification system. What do you think would happen if someone received tickets using your id and then YOU got pulled over? I dont know the laws in each state, but if you have a couple strikes against you, you're probably looking at some severe fines or even time in jail.

More info on drivers license identity theft Another situation thieves might create using your social security number is stealing your medical identity. I know, I know, it sounds far-fetched, but if it happens it could be disastrous for both your finances and your health, maybe even your life! Lets say that same person who stole your social security earlier, then stole your license, got into a bad accident after running a red light. This thief needs major surgery, and spends a month in the hospital recovering. Im no expert in health care costs, but I imagine such a bill could be around $200,000 probably more. Obviously thats a huge bill for you to pay. Lets assume you have insurance and the thief had access to your insurance through your social security and drivers license identities. You'll pay less, but you'll still have to pay and your are closer to your insurance cap. What if you then needed medical treatment at the same hospital and they assumed you were the same person as the thief...

...you could get the wrong treatment and suffer major health consequences.

A friend of mine owns a couple rental properties. He recently told me that one of his tenants (lets call him Mike) had his character or criminal identity stolen. I guess his tenant has a brother (we'll call him Bill) who is heavy into drugs, crime, just bad stuff. Apparantly he has an extensive criminal record. He had been using Mike's name and drivers license number as his. Mike recently was pulled over for speeding and, the cops, thinking he was Bill, threw him in jail for over a month! He spent over a month in jail because his identity was stolen and it took that long for the legal process to clean things up.

The most common form of identity theft is financial. Thieves who have access to your accounts, whether its your banks or credit cards can do some serious damage to your finances. The problem with financial and all forms of ID theft is that you often will not know its occurred until 14 months after the inital theft. With financial ID theft, if you do not report unauthorized money transfers within 60 days of the problem, then YOU are not getting that money back! No joke, this is a federal guideline folks. See if you are a victim, check identity theft.

We highly recommend you take a good look through this site, especially the page on "prevent identity theft" to learn simple ways to protect yourself.

Click here for our page on identity theft prevention

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