| Of all the phone scams currently out there, one of the | | | | There are four primary types of identity theft and they |
| shadiest is the ones from fake mortgage companies. | | | | require very innocent seeming personal information in |
| These companies aren't often looking for money from | | | | order to take place. These are:o Financial identity theft |
| you, but instead work their way into a conversation | | | | - where your name, address, and mother's maiden |
| with you that convinces you to provide them with a | | | | name are required to access account information and |
| large amount of personal information. This information | | | | purchase products and services.o Criminal identity theft |
| is then saved and sold to other companies either so | | | | - where someone apprehended for a crime pretends |
| that you will receive many more telemarketing calls | | | | to be you.o Identity cloning - where someone collects |
| and junk mail, but also for identity theft. | | | | your information to assume your daily life.o Business |
| Identity theft is a growing risk when it comes to phone | | | | Commercial identity theft - where instead of personal |
| scams because it seems relatively harmless. This is | | | | information, business information is used in order to |
| especially true as many identity thieves don't request | | | | obtain a credit card for which the business will be held |
| your credit card numbers, but instead collect | | | | responsible. |
| information such as your full name, address, phone | | | | There are also many cases where identity theft isn't |
| number, age, social security number, and other | | | | used for the crime itself, but is instead used to make |
| identifying pieces of information. | | | | crimes easier, such as with espionage, illegal |
| There are many different crimes that can be | | | | immigration, and terrorism. Protect yourself from this |
| committed through identity theft. The most obvious is | | | | kind of crime - often masking itself as a phone offer |
| credit card fraud, but this is only the very beginning of | | | | from a mortgage company - by doing what you can |
| what can occur. Essentially the criminals will take the | | | | to stop telemarketers and annoying calls with the Do |
| information they have collected from you and then, | | | | Not Call registry, and never providing them with your |
| pretending that they are you, will make money illegally | | | | personal information. |
| in your name. | | | | |