Identity Theft Consequences

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Taking all the necessary and precautionary steps to prevent yourself from being a victim of identity theft does not guarantee that you will indeed be safe from this crime. Why so? The answer is simple: identity theft operates in various ways that can take advantage of your financial and personal information.

Since you do not know that your identity has already been stolen, once you realize that you are, everything will be too late. You are then left to deal with all the consequences and damages that the identity thief has left. Hence it is important that you expose yourself to the many types of identity theft so you'd know how to evade them.

1. Financial Identity Theft

This is probably the most common type of id theft that everyone is …show more content…

In this method, the criminal will utilize your personal information to avail of health and medical benefits or services. Victims of this type of medical identity theft are typically faced with huge billing statements and unclear and invalid medical files. You will not be able to avail of basic insurance like life and health insurance because someone has made a bad name out of your good credit standing status. So if, for instance, you are hospitalized and you've been a victim of medical identity fraud, then there is always a possibility that your insurance will not pay for your hospital bills because you have already claimed your insurance benefits.

3. Criminal Identity Theft

Id theft does not only include financial burdens but also criminal ones. If you are a victim of identity fraud, the thief can apply for a new driver's license under your name. But what if the criminal who stole your identity also decided to steal a car and on the process, he left his driver's license (with your name and address on it) on the scene of the crime. A warrant will be served for his arrest and since your name is on the license, then they can pinpoint the crime to you. How will you know when a crime has been committed under your name? You'll never know unless you get caught speeding.

4. Character Identity

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