How do they steal your identity?

There are different ways criminals acquire personal information and use it to their advantage.

One of the popular ways to acquire information is phishing. Here thieves disguise as legitimate dealers/institutions and send spam mails, or ask the customers to enter personal information in pop-up ads.

Another common method of acquiring information is skimming. In skimming, thieves collate information about credit/debit cards from transaction processing devices like ATMs.

Picking trashed credit card bills, bank statements, and other personal documents is yet another method of acquiring personal information. This method is called dumpster driving.

Thieves can also work out on a ‘Address change' form, to receive bills at a preferred address. In an aggressive method of stealing, thieves derive billing and other personal information documents from the employees having access to these documents.

Another way to steal information is using pretexting. Here the criminals ask for information from the customers by disguising as researchers for an agency or a company.