Identity theft
When someone uses your personal information or your identity such as your name, your driver’s license,your Adhaar number , pan number for any illegal activity without your permission to commit a crime or fraud or any hacking activity are identity theft.
How your Identity Can Be Stolen?
There are many ways some of them are listed below
1. Data Breaches
2. Phishing Attacks
3. WiFi Hacking
4. Malware and virus Activity
5. Credit Card and debit card Theft
6. Hacking
7. Dark Web Marketplaces
8. stealing mails
9. Extracting Information from Social Networking Websites
10. If you are giving your personal details to any services or any website. that website can also sold your personal details.
How hackers and scammers can use your identity
1. Carders can use your credit cards , debit card or bank logins for online shopping.
2. Scammers can sell your personal information on the dark web .
3. Hackers can use your identity , bank logins to pull out all the money from your bank account.
4. Hackers can use your identity for any illegal activity.
If you think you are a victim of identity theft you can submit a report to the Federal Trade Commission’s of India website (https://www.identitytheft.gov/).
you should deactivate your old debit card or credit card and you should contact your bank.
Some news and facts of identity theft
1. 143 million Americans faced an increased risk of identity theft after a major Equifax hack stole millions of Social Security Numbers, birthdays, addresses, and even some drivers license numbers.
2. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 1.3 million children’s records are stolen every year.
3. Most identity theft complaints (61%) are from those between the ages of 30 and 59.
4. 16 billion$ was stolen through identity theft in 2017
