Identity theft
What is identity theft?
Identity theft is a type of fraud which involves stealing money or gaining other benefits by pretending to be someone else
How does identity theft work?
Identity theft can happen easily and quickly. By leaving your personal information readily available, scammers will have easy access to this information. For example, scammers will pay people to rummage through rubbish tips and steal letters (‘dumpster diving’) to collect personal information.
Many of us have a wealth of personal information readily available—cards in our wallet, mail, public records, information saved in our computers and information posted on social networking sites.
Warning signs
You get an email, SMS or a phone call out of the blue asking you to ‘validate’ or ‘confirm’ banking details.
You notice that amounts of money go missing from your bank account without any explanations.
The caller pushes you to provide personal information and discourages you from checking if it’s a genuine request.
You are unable to obtain credit or a loan because of an inexplicably bad credit rating.
Do your homework
Be suspicious if anyone asks you for your personal information. Scammers will use convincing stories to explain why you need to give them money or your personal details.
never reply to emails asking you to update your log in details wether it be from your bank, financial institution, PayPal, Facebook or even from your ISP.
DO NOT call using any telephone number listed in the email—use a number that appears on your statement or card or in the telephone book.
Keep upto date with the latest scams
Decide
Don’t be tricked by an email that looks legitimate or appears to link to a genuine website. The best defence is to delete the email before you even open it and then contact your bank.
If you receive a phone call that you think may be genuine, you should not ignore the possibility that there actually has been some fraud with your bank account or credit card. Ask the caller for details, then hang up and call your bank or credit union to tell them what has happened. Make sure the phone number you ring is genuine—use a number that appears on your statement or card or in the telephone book.
Report them
If you think your identity has been misused, you should contact your bank or credit union to let them know. You can also report a scam to SCAMwatch. Also send a copy of the offending email to Facebook, Paypal also report them to the ISP from which the offending email came from . Many Scammers have a free email account with the likes of Gmail, Yahoo or MSN.
Tell your friends and family about the scam so they know what to be on the look out for if they are targeted.