Identity Theft
Identity Theft, a crime in which a person obtains someone else's personal information and uses it to commit fraud or deception. Typically, the information consists of identification numbers for credit cards, bank accounts, telephone calling cards, or, in the United States, Social Security accounts. It may also consist of stolen or forged identity documents, including drivers licenses, passports, employee identification cards, and medical insurance cards. The thief may use the information to charge purchases to the victim's credit card, to withdraw funds from the victim's bank, to receive benefits from the government or insurance companies, or to impersonate the victim while committing a crime.
The thief can obtain the data from discarded documents (credit-card receipts in a dumpster, for example), by eavesdropping, through trickery (such as a bogus E-mail asking the recipient to “verify” an account number), and various other methods including computer hacking, burglary, and pick-pocketing. Consumers are advised to never give identification information in response to an incoming telephone call or E-mail, to check carefully each month's credit-card statements, and to safeguard financial documents and destroy them when they are no longer needed.
A victim should contact local police as soon as the crime is discovered. In the United States identity theft is a federal crime under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998.