Click on any of the underlined items for examples of what an ID thief can do if he or she gets his hands on your loot.
Your wallet or purse, containing your credit and debit cards, social security number, and checks is stolen from you at work, at a restaurant, on the subway, or someplace else.Your roommate steals your ATM card and the PIN number that you wrote on a note in your desk.
Your incoming or outgoing mail, including bills, bank statements, checks you have written, and pre-approved credit card offers, is stolen from your mailbox.
“Dumpster divers” steal receipts for transactions you made with your credit and debit cards from the trash container behind a business or at your home.
A coworker steals your personnel records.
Someone who works for a government agency steals your social security number and your name and address.
At the airport, someone looking over your shoulder as you dial from a pay phone memorizes your calling card number.
An information service on the Internet sells your name, address, and social security number to someone who has a fraudulent motive for buying it.
A computer hacker gets into the databases of a company you do business with and steals your name and address and the account numbers of your credit and debit cards.
Someone uses your personal identification to call your bank and access your bank account information.
Someone calls or emails you pretending to be with your bank, Internet service provider, or another company you do business with and asks to “verify” your bank account information or the password for your account.
Someone sets up a phony Web site for the purpose of gathering the account numbers of your credit and debit cards or your social security number.
You give the account numbers for your credit and debit cards to telemarketers or Internet merchants to pay for purchases, but the merchants are fraudulent.
Someone gets your credit report posing as an employer, landlord, or creditor who would have a legitimate right to that information.
Someone says you have won a prize or lottery and wants your social security number account numbers for your credit and debit cards, or bank account information for tax purposes, to verify that you are the correct person or to deposit money in your account.