Identity theft is rapidly growing to be one of the much hyped crimes in the earth. It is very easier said than done to guard against. Legal enforcement agencies are not fully prepared to handle most of the cases, and since this type of offense is still in its beginning, most people have no idea how destructive it can be.

Identity hackers dig up information from companies or other organizations by thieving records from the employers, hacking into the computers of the organization, or by bribing a member of staff who is accessible to the records. Not only those, they search through the trash or dumps of businesses in a practice identified as dumpster diving.

Identity thieves often steal credit card numbers because it is a process by employing a special data storage device in an application recognized as skimming. They acquire credit reports by maltreating the authorized access of their employers to credit information or by pretending as an employer, landlord, or anyone else who might have a lawful right to the concerning data. They even go to the extent of stealing purses and wallets which may contain identification cards and credit cards. They burgle mail which includes credit card statements, new checks, pre-approved credit offers, or tax report. They can even steal private information from your residence. Diverting your mails to another place by completing a “alter of address form” is another tricky way used by the hackers. Utilizing gummy bears or castings of false fingerprint identification to fool low class fingerprint scanners is another popular way of hacking. Hackers scam data by pretending as a legal business personality or administration official. Deducting social security numbers with the use of information found on social networks sites like Twitter and Facebook is a advance process of identity hacking.

One of the latest structures of identity theft is phishing. Phishing is the system where a criminal sets up a website and email address which is intended to look like a genuine business website that you already know and have done business with. Then you will get an email requesting an update of your account information, and a fake page will be sent to you that is mechanized to phish your valuable information. You will provide the information thinking that the company is requesting for it, but actuality you just have handed your identity to a criminal.

More than 10 million identity thefts happen every year in the US which means someone is having their identity stolen every 4 seconds within the United States. A more alarming fact is many of the victims finish up with warrants issued against their name for fiscal crimes which are actually done by the identity thieves. A common consequence is having trouble to get a loan or credit as an effect of identity theft. Not also that, the negative information clings to their records which is very hard to get rid of. On the other hand, for the criminal, it is a comparatively low-risk attempt as credit card issuers seldom act against thieves who are in custody. Trying to prosecute them is not cost effective. They can pay for people to forget a definite amount of scam as a price of doing business.