Identity theft

The use of personal information of anyone by some other person to commit any form of crime or malpractice without the person's knowledge is known as identity theft. Some of the personal information that when used is considered as identity theft are name, credit card number, account number and Social security number.

It is estimated by the FTC that almost 9 million Americans are victims of identity theft and their personal information is used with out their knowledge to commit crimes. It is very much possible that some known by you has been a victim of identity theft at some pint of time.

The crimes committed using identity theft varies and the information needed to commit these crimes are usually gathered by the criminals from the thrash that is thrown out of our houses. They search our garbage to find our account statement and other bills which are thrown out by us. The information from these documents is then used to rent an apartment in your name or acquire a credit card using your credit details and your other personal information.

This card is then used by them to purchase various expensive articles and by the time you realize what has happened they disappear and you are left with a big bill to pay. By the time you have realized all this, your credit history is destroyed and your various loan application start getting rejected. All this without you spending even one penny of the bills that are over due.

This is a very major crime and the people whose personal details are used to commit these crimes loose thousands of dollars and precious time to clean up the problems that are created by the thief and also to get back the respect which is lost due to the misdeeds done by the miscreants.

The price that a victim pays is huge, the damage and loss is not just limited to the money lost, the amount of trauma and stress that one has to experience is also immense. Some of the problems that might be faced by these victims are loss of employment opportunities, denial of credit required for buying of house, cars or educational loan. The victims might have to even face imprisonment for crimes that have not been committed by them.