The victim of identity theft is often unaware of the crime until they receive invoices or are charged for services, products or subscriptions they didn’t sign up for. They may also spot payments on their balance statement or in their account transactions that they don’t recognise.
Identity theft often causes prolonged stress and uncertainty for the victim, as it may take time to find out the full scope of the theft and the damage. Despite investigations, the victim may not fully ever know the purposes for which the criminal has used or tried to use their details.
As with many other scams, the best way to stay safe is to learn how to identify these risks and prevent these crimes from happening.
Identity theft often results from a data breach. Criminals may obtain your personal data
- in a data breach
- by using fake websites to steal your data or
- by capturing your post.
They may also try to watch you enter your card details when you make payments. For this reason, it’s important to protect your personal details by removing your address from discarded post, submitting your personal details only to trustworthy websites and covering your card details with your hand when you enter them to make a payment.