How can someone steal your identity? Sometime ago it was impossible, but now this kind of fraud is becoming more and more popular. You public a lot of date in social media, what is more it is easy to hack your devices, when you are on public Wi-Fi. Is it safe to connect to public Wi-Fi? You may think that it is, but you are completely wrong. Public Wi-Fi is the place where your identity may be stolen.
How can someone steal your identity? – Ways
You may think that your identity is safe, but think twice. Most often we make mistakes (than our identity may be stolen) when we are in a hurry, it is when we accept an unknown friend request, open strange links in mails and messages, or we leave our ID card in the rental shop. We give scammers the possibility to steal our identity, the most popular methods to steal our identity are:
- copying documents and sensitive data, e.g. ID card, driving license to steal your identity
- phishing scams in messages
- fake websites collecting personal data
- public free Wi-Fi collecting data
- spoofing social media accounts and obtaining information from your friends or cheating on your friends
- lottery scams and inheritance scams to get access to your bank account
- fake bank calls to obtain access to your bank account and to steal your identity
How can someone steal your identity? – Places
You may think that to prevent someone steal your identity you should know the ways how fraud works, but you are wrong. You have to know where the frauds take place to be prepared when you are there.
- ATM with scanner
- online (Social media messages, emails, new friend requests)
- rental offices
- new/fake online shops
- lotteries
- events
- during travel
- public Wi-Fi
- theft of sensitive documents
How to check if someone is using my identity? Online
- Revise bank account
- Revise messengers
- Revise devices connected to social platforms
- Revise email account
- Public information on your wall to inform your friends about fraud possibility
- Check you credit score
- Use our questionnaire
How to check if someone is using my identity? In real world.
Why someone is using my identity?
The most popular reasons of scams with identity stealing is financial, scammers want to earn a lot of money. The second reason of a scam is blackmail and revenge. The third reason is that you were chosen as random person without reason to hurt another person.