Ways to Commit Identity Theft

There are many types of identity theft, and various reasons for a criminal to commit this crime, however what is most impressive is the way they attain a victim’s information. The simplest way to put is that a criminal obtains and exploits a victim’s information from their credentials; however, the ways the criminals obtain this information is impressive. According to the Identity Theft Journal, a person’s identity can be taken many ways. Criminals can obtain a person’s information by going through their trash, or maybe from retrieving data from a person’s computer, phone, or hard drives that have not been properly disposed. Another means is through public records, the government has on its citizens, the perpetrator can gain information on a victim with relative ease through these public records. Another way identity theft can be done is through the phone; a person will call a house and act under false pretenses while gaining information on their victim. The personal questions like, “What was your first pet’s name?” are the same questions used to get a new password to an account when an old one is forgotten. The criminal will now have the answers to these questions and will be able to access your data with greater ease (Journal, 2010). Another means of attaining data is easier with how far technology has come. With handheld scanners, the perpetrator can skim the victim’s information with handheld readers; they can scan your credit cards or hack your personal technology to get the information they need. Other means, now made easy because of technology are with viruses or malware. These programs, complex in nature, can go into a person’s files and then report them back to the programs creator with all the information they need to t...

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