What Do Thieves Do with a Stolen Identity?

Identity thieves have numerous ways to take advantage your identity. It’s truly amazing what can be accomplished with so little information. The following is a small, small list of various types of identity fraud.

An identity thief may:

* open credit card accounts using your name and information. Of course, they don’t pay the bill (what would be the point?) and the late payments, charge-offs and judgments find their way on your credit report. You may never know until you get turned down for a loan, pull your own report or an enterprising collection agent tracks you down and tells you in their rather unfriendly manner.

*authorize electronic transfers and kindly zap your account for all it’s worth.

* have their electric, gas, cable or satellite TV, lawn care or any other service put in your name. What do they care when the service gets shut off? They just find another sucker.

* change the address on your existing credit card so that the bill goes anywhere but to you, and then the identity thief sits back and sips tasty cocktails in some southern climate on your dime. It could be a couple months before you realize you haven’t received your bill in a while.
*open a landline or cell phone account in your name.

*open a checking account in your name and float bad checks all over town. Imagine going to your drycleaners and seeing a check with your name posted on their “deadbeat board.”

*get a driver’s license issued with your name and their picture. Now you’re in a world of hurt. Remember all those credit cards you signed “see picture id” because it was supposedly safe? Hopefully the identity thief didn’t get his hands on those because now he doesn’t even have to try to forge your signature. He just whips out his handy dandy official state identification.

*use your identity to get a loan.

*gain employment using your social security number. You better be prepared to pay taxes on the income because you can be certain they zeroed out there deductions.

*use your identity to get government benefits. Good luck getting the government to believe that someone else is getting your benefits. Prepare to spend a good deal of time in court.

*file a phony tax return in your name. The refund is sent to them and they’ll be long gone by the time the auditors find the error and come looking…for you. And trust me, they’ll find you.

*use your identity when they get arrested (probably for identity theft). Of course, the warrant will be issued in your name when they fail to appear for court. You won’t know anything about this until you get pulled over for speeding and are promptly “escorted” to the rear of the squad car in front of your family and carted off to jail.