Identity theft is a crime of obtaining another person’s personal information for financial gains by posing as that person. Identity theft can take several forms. A thief can gain information from bills and personal papers. Other ways of gaining another person’s identification include getting access to their social security number. Also, a person can gain your personal information on the internet. There are many ways to gain personal information. Identity theft is the fastest and most prevalent form of crime in America today. Let us explore several ways identity theft can occur.

One way your personal information comes into the hands of thieves is through your trash. Your trash is taken to a sorting facility where people go through your trash to separate it for different uses. Your papers such as credit card bills, medical bills, and bank statements have personal information such as account numbers and addresses and other data that is used by identity thieves. The surest way of preventing this type of identity theft is shredding your papers with a cross cut shredder.

Another way identity theft occurs is through the use of your social security number. When you go to a hospital, a doctor’s office, a medical supplier, pharmacy or dentist, you are often asked for your social security number. A variety of people from office clerks, nurse assistants and nurses have access to your social security. The best way is to protect you is only give the last four numbers of your social security number or leave it blank on the form. If they request the information refuse politely. This policy should also apply for your children in the public and private to school systems. The Social Security Administration states the social security number is not to be used as a form of identification.

With the advent of the internet, there are hackers and other people who represent themselves as companies with one intention. That is getting your credit information. An example of this is a scam being done under the name of the Children’s Fund and it’s president. Upon investigating, I found the company was aware of the scam. These are scams designed to solicit your personal information. The best way to prevent being scammed is to some research on the internet and gain confirmation of the company.