How is identity theft accomplished?
There are many forms of identity theft. Thieves who steal identities do so by taking pictures of credit cards, intercepting mail, dumpster diving, sending phishing emails, stealing documents, and even by leaking information at their job. By being aware of how information is obtained to steal your identity you can be more prepared to fight these criminals so they aren't able to take advantage of you.
It is amazing how small the amount of information needed to steal someone's identity. It is frightening to find out how easy it is to have your identity stolen. It is extremely important to know how identity theft is accomplished so you can take the necessary action to prevent it from happening.
By being aware of what is going on when you are shopping, you can save yourself a lot of hastle later. Make sure when you go out to eat, that you don't let your credit card out of your sight. Make sure they run it in front of you and not take it to a back room out of sight. This will stop someone from taking an impression or a photo of your credit card to use it for fraud at a later time. Make sure you shred all of your junk mail that contains personal information, as well as picking up your mail regularly from your mail box.
Many thieves use phishing emails to obtain your pin numbers from your bank or credit cards. It is very easy to be the victim of a phishing email because they often look legitimate. The email claims to be from your financial institution asking you to click a link to log in and get some information. But the link in the email is not really the company's website, it is a fake website designed to get your information. Be very careful that you only go to the company's website to log into your account, never click on a link from an email and log in without looking carefully at the web address that the link takes you to.