Feature Story
January 2010
Victim of Identity Theft?
Grrr! Pierre has just been told by a collection agent that he owes $2,000 to Gold Bars Bank. According to the agent, Pierre used up his credit limit and has failed to make a single payment on the debt.
“What's going on?" Pierre asked the agent. "I don’t even have an account with Gold Bars Bank!”
Clearly, Pierre was a victim of identity theft.
WHAT IS IDENTITY THEFT?
Identity theft can mean a number of things, but in general, it refers to obtaining some kind of advantage (money, credit, property, a passport, etc.) through the use of someone else’s identity without permission.
Identity theft usually involves two steps:
1. The thief collects key pieces of information on a person (date of birth, social insurance number, banking information, etc.).
2. The thief then uses this information to obtain goods or services (credit cards, a cell phone, furniture, etc.) in the name – and at the expense – of the victim.
How do identity thieves get this information? There are the “classic” ways: stealing wallets or mail, rifling through someone’s garbage or having a corrupt contact (a “mole”) inside a financial institution or government agency.
These methods are still widespread, but identity thieves now have several new tools at their disposal thanks to the Internet: spam (junk email), spyware, information piracy, etc. For example, a spam email that tells you to click on a link to update your bank account is rarely trustworthy. More often than not, the website in the email isn’t the bank’s real website, but rather a site that has been created by an identity thief to collect information on future victims.
