This is a new type of fraud that continues to plague the public and refers to financial identity theft in which the identity thief takes the victim’s personal identifying information and uses it to create new accounts.  These new accounts are used by the identity thief to get services and products.  What is often used to commit new account fraud is stolen Social Security numbers.

When the identity thief makes a new account using the stolen Social Security number they will usually give a different mailing address.  This way the victim of identity theft does not receive the bills and they may remain unaware of these new accounts.  The victims usually find out about these accounts when a creditor calls and wants to know when a payment is going to be made on this account.

There are many variations to this type of fraud which include:

• Utility fraud—new utility accounts are open such as gas, electricity, and phone in the victim’s name.  This is about twenty percent of new account fraud incidents.
• Loan Fraud—to pull off this type of new account fraud the identity thief needs the victims Social Security number.  This is about ten percent of new account fraud incidents.
• Credit card fraud—this type of new account fraud is the most lucrative and prevalent type.  This is about half of all the identity theft cases and new account fraud cases.  Identity thieves love credit cards for the simple reason is that they are the easiest accounts to open plus they can be quickly be made into cash.

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No matter how complex an email client or web browser is a phisher can always find weakness and loopholes in which to commit identity theft.  The phisher just takes all these new tricks and adds them to already growing arsenal of identity theft tricks.  An example of this is when Phishing and spam filers are extremely effective, the better the phishers are getting at getting past them.

Address spoofing is one of the most used tricks of phishers.  Most of the email programs let the users enter their own information into the Reply and From fields.  This is very convenient for the people who have multiple email addresses.  On the other hand, it makes it easier for these phishers to write messages which appear like they did come from a source that is legitimate.

Some of the other things that phishers use for address spoofing include:

• Obfuscated links—while these URL’s look real they actually take the victim to the phisher’s website.
• Graphics—once the phisher determines which browser and email client the victim uses, the phisher can put security padlocks and pictures of address bars over the authentic address bars and status.
• Frames and pop-up windows—the site that the victim is directed to may have invisible lines around it that can harbor code that can be malicious or there may be malicious popup windows that appear. Read the rest of this entry »

You receive your credit card statement, or bank statement, and notice a charge you do not know or did not understand. If it is not a mistake by the Credit Card Company or bank and no one else has made a purchase, then this has happened.

Unfortunately, you have become a victim of identity theft and now you have to recover your identity and rebuild your credit.  This is the first time that this has happened to you and you are not sure where to start doing these two important things, especially recovering your identity.

Remember, do not panic.  This is the worse thing to do in this situation because it could make you take actions that are not all that useful.  Even though it is not easy, try to remain calm and be prepared to fight to get your identity back.  Do not expect “instant” miracles because it may take a long time before everything is back to normal.

Here are some steps to help you recover your identity.

1.    Find out which areas of your life are going to be affected by the identity theft.

2.    Contact your Credit Card Companies, bank, and Loan Company that you have quite possibility become a victim of identity theft.

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High tech identity theft is representative of the more sophisticated identity thief.  This particular identity thief has methods that are more covert.  This makes them harder to respond to or detect.  The area that they center their attention on is the area where the consumer has the least control over their personal information.  This area is where most of the identity theft law addresses.

These laws, which include HIPAA and FACTA, focus on three key areas of record keeping.

• How your records are stored
• How your records are accessed
• How your records are disposed of.

These identity theft laws require the training of the people that handle your personal information.  Most businesses do not even know about these laws nor do they know what they need to do to comply with them.    There are written policies about how companies/businesses, are to handle persona information and how to dispose of the information.

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If you are a victim of identity theft filing an Identity Theft Report is essential to making sure that you have the most legal options available as you work to remove the unauthorized purchases from your account and restore your credit.  The credit reporting companies and the businesses involved with the identity theft need certain details to be able to verify that you have been a victim of identity theft and an Identity Theft Report provides those details.  A printed copy of your Identity Theft Report should be kept on hand throughout the process of straightening your credit out; usually credit card companies and the credit reporting agencies will one to have a copy on file for your record.

Filing an Identity Theft Report ensures that the credit reporting companies permanently block fraudulent information from appearing on your credit report.  This is the strongest action that you can take to help protect your credit record and your credit score.  Also filing an Identity Theft Report with the police makes sure that the debts do not reappear on your credit report at some later date.  One of the biggest hassles that can result from identity theft are debt collection agencies contacting you to try to collect debts for purchases that you never made and filing an Identity Theft Report puts an end to that as well.

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