ID Theft Confused With Other Crimes

Identity theft is often confused with other crimes that lead to identity theft. As an example, a thief caught stealing credit card numbers is not necessarily committing identity theft. He is committing a financial crime. Identity theft happens when a criminal steals your personal information for the express purpose of pretending to be you.

Why would anyone want to be you? If you’re anything like me, even the thought that someone would want to take over your life might make you smile and shake your head. Go ahead, I would tell them. It’s all yours. Except I do not really mean it.

Even if you did, what an identity thief wants from you is not really your life; it’s just everything that tells others that your life belongs to you. Your Social Security number is one good example. A person who can’t get a Social Security number will sometimes steal one that belongs to someone else, so they can have the benefits of having a Social Security number.

Another reason that identities are stolen is to gain access to your financial accounts. In fact, this is one of the most common reasons that a criminal is trying to become you. Your power lies in your good name, and if a thief can gain control of your good name, then they also control that power.
The power that I mean is purchasing power. The ability to own a home, hold a job, and apply for credit. These are what identity thieves are after.

Identity thieves are not the pasty-faced, Pop-Tart eating nerds that you might picture them to be. Next time you go out to the grocery store, look around at the people who are also there. Any one of them could be an identity thief. Young, old, rich, poor, any nationality-there are no restraints that say one type of person is more likely to be an identity thief than another.

It doesn’t matter that the doctor you saw last week had the best nurses in the county. One of those nurses could be an identity thief who steals personal information from patient records and then sells that information to another criminal, who then resells it to illegal aliens. Even a single mom of three that just moved in across the street could be an identity thief.

No group of people is more or less likely to be an identity thief. Criminals steal identities for profit, and anyone in the right place with access to the right information might find the lure of extra cash too much to turn down.