Consumer Beware... Identity Theft Tools & Techniques
By Elizabeth Ward

The Tools Used In Identity Theft

Identity theft is very quickly becoming the crime of choice for thousands of criminals worldwide. With online Internet access to just about any kind of database you want becoming easier and easier to acquire, the crime of Identity Theft is becoming so easy, a child could do it, if they are even mildly adept at using a computer.

So how does identity theft occur?

Below are some of the ways you can become a victim.

Identity Theft From The Dead:

The goal here is to scour through newspapers obituary columns to find out who has died lately. Then once you get a list of the dearly departed and their addresses, you go over to their homes and grab any mail that is laying around.

Some of the items used in identity theft are bank statements, credit card receipts, tax bills, and utility bills. They will even go through the garbage looking for anything that will help the perpetrators with the identity theft.

This may take a few days, maybe up to a month, but you can be sure that many of the dearly departed's loved ones are too traumatized & busy with other details to stop credit card bills and invoices from creditors from being sent out.

Another way to exploit those who have left this earth, is to make an appointment with a realtor to view the property of the newly deceased.

Once inside, the thieves will go through the house looking for mail, invoices, even ID that may still be in the house, literally anything that will help the crooks with the identity theft of your loved on. Scotland just had over 7000 dead identity theft victims in a recent crime spree perpetrated by Scottish gangs.

Statistics say that around 30 percent of all ID thefts occur by stealing the identity of a dead person.

High Tech Identity Theft:

One of the laziest ways to perpetrate identity theft, is to place a computer recording device on a victim's computer. Once this type of spy software is installed, it will capture and record ALL computer activity... everything from passwords, banking information & credit card numbers, to private emails & chat conversations.

The spy software will then relay this information over the Internet directly into the identity theft criminals email account. The nice thing for the crooks who operate this way is,they just let the victims emails pile up in an free untraceable email account, and then maybe once a month use an email parser to scan these emails for the information they need to get your money. This can be a totally automated process. The spy software is easy to buy off the Internet. There are over 500 types of this spy software commercially available to anyone who wants to buy it.

Identity Theft Through Mail.

If the crook can get hold of your mail they will easily be able pull off and identity theft on you, and spoof a lending institution into granting a bank account to the scammers. They will simply take a leisurely drive through the country in the guise of delivering handbills to mailboxes. While they are at these country mailboxes they will pilfer your mail. Many of us aren't waiting for our bills with baited breath, so it can be a couple of months until we realize we haven't received our bills. By that time the identity theft has occurred and the crooks are long gone.

The other simpler way to get your mail is to put in a change of address to the post office and re route your mail to the identity thieves new post box. This is a common practice, and if you are on vacation you will be none the wiser.

Identity Theft Through Forged ID:

These tools are a bit more high tech an require some computer skill, but nevertheless much identity theft has been perpetrated by generating social security cards, drivers licenses & birth certificates. The software to do this can be acquired online freely if you know your way around. All that's required for this type of identity theft is a computer a printer and a software to tell the computer how to do what you want.

Identity Theft Through Shopping.

Have you ever been to a restaurant and paid with your credit card? Do you follow the waiter to the cash register and watch him as he runs your card through? It's very simple to grab your credit card numbers including your expiry date and the 3 or 4 digit security code on the back of your card. Then all the crook has to do to make you a victim of identity theft, is wait a few weeks and then go on an online shopping spree, using your stolen credit card information. It will be very unlikely that you will be able to sort out which retail outlet your card numbers were stolen from. This type of identity theft is extremely easy to pull off.

About the author: Elizabeth Ward makes it easy to protect your Internet & computerprivacy. Learn the 4 essential steps to spy proofing yourcomputer. To receive your FREE mini-course visit