Personal Finance Blog by Debit versus Credit

While watching The Office the other day I saw an episode where Jim, the office prankster, comes in dressed like Dwight, an annoying paper salesman. At first Dwight doesn’t realize that Jim is making fun of him, but after Jim starts to argue with Dwight about bears (Dwight’s favorite animal), he becomes enraged and shouts, “Identity theft is not a joke, Jim!”

While I hate to admit that Dwight may be right about something, he brings up an important point. Identity theft is not a joke – in fact it is a very serious problem that can have significant ramifications for those who have had their identities stolen.

What is identity theft?

Identity theft can be defined as a type of fraud where the criminal pretends to be someone other than himself with the intent of personal gain. One of the most common types of identity theft is financial identity theft, which is the act of using another’s identity to obtain goods and services.

A classic example of financial identity theft is bank fraud, where the criminal uses a fraudulently obtained social security number, address and other forms of identification to apply for a loan under the victim’s name. Once the criminal has received the proceeds from the loan he disappears, leaving behind a fraudulent loan on his victim’s credit and a serious headache.

Preventing identity theft

The easiest way to prevent identity theft is to never share your personal information with anyone that you don’t trust. While there have been many cases where personal information has been sold by a corporation’s disgruntled employee, most often criminals come into contact with sensitive materials through other means, such as:

• Stealing mail
• Retrieving information from old discarded computers
• Pickpocketing
• Hacking
• Digging through rubbish bins

Identity theft is a growing problem in today’s increasingly electronic world. It’s important that you learn how to protect your identity so you don’t end up paying thousands of dollars out of your own pocket trying to restore your (once good) name. Now that you know a little bit more about identity theft it’s time to take a look at a few common identity theft scams.

This post was written in response to the Spend on Life Credit Blogging Scholarship. If you’re a student with a blog and would like the chance to win a $2,000 dollar scholarship check out the Spend on Life Blogging Scholarship!