In the last year alone , identity theft has claimed over nine million victims in the US alone, and about 85% of these victims only realized that they have been victimized until it’s too late, when unknown charges have been made to their credit cards and/or something’s gone wrong with their credit report. Only the remaining 15% found out due to diligent activities by various companies and businesses have allowed the detection of identity theft and fraud.  So it is wise to protect yourself from identity theft, before it’s too late.

How to prevent identity theft

Many seems to be unaware of warning signs that should set off warning bells in your head. Here are 5 signs that can help you identify possible ways to rob you of your identity and then you can actually start to protect yourself from identity theft.

1. Your monthly bank statement shows withdrawals and fund transfers you don’t remember making.  You may be a victim of bank fraud.

2.  Some checks from your checkbook maybe missing and new checkbooks don’t come in your mail. Statistics show that the unauthorized use of others’ checking accounts is one of the fastest growing types of identity theft, protect yourself from identity theft by ensuring your checks are all accounted for.

3.  Credit card theft shows your credit card statements with purchases you did not make or receipt of billing statements from credit accounts and cards you never opened. An even worse scenario is when a credit collection company calls you to pay for stuff you never bought.

4. When your billing statements don’t arrive in your mail, you may need to protect yourself from identity theft, it can mean that your bills are being diverted to another address. Missing mails you expected to arrive can also be a sign that someone is raiding your mailbox.

5. You need to protect yourself from identity theft when you find yourself being disapproved for a new credit card, a loan or mortgage, when you know you can clearly have been approved. Checking your credit records will show debts that you don’t remember having.

Now that you know the warning signs you need to look out for, you can now protect yourself from identity theft, make sure that you take steps in order to alleviate some if not all of these warning signs, so you can stop identify theft from happening to you.

Commercial identity theft can be defined by any of three things. It can involve the identity thief targeting all the employees in an organization or what is known as spear phishing. It can also mean the thief accessing the company’s credit account. The thief targeting a firm’s clients is the third kind of commercial identity theft.

Spear Phishing – Fish in a Barrel

This type of commercial identity theft hijacks the credit of people within an organization. This could involve the employees and/or executives of a company – as either the victims or the perpetrators.

This type of credit hijack uses a method known as spear phishing, by the use of an e-mail, allegedly spawned by a department within the company. The e-mail will often direct employees to a counterfeit website and ask them to personal information or will ask for an e-mail reply with the same info.

Usually, the thief (which can also be an employee of the company) simply copies the database containing all the account and Social Security information of everyone involved in the company and then these thieves can wreak havoc over the employees’ credit account information.

Commercial Credit – The Company’s Credit Account

Here, the identity thief gains access to the credit account, credit cards, and/or checking accounts of a targeted company.

This is done either by a computer hack that is able to gain access to the company’s computer database but more likely it is the work of someone currently or previously employed by the company whose access is readily available.

There is also the possibility that the identity thief hacks the company’s e-banking transactions, either by hacking thru the computers or by a simpler method like stealing checks or stealing and faking credit cards.

Commercial Identity Theft – Client Hijack

Aside from targeting the company’s credit accounts and spear phishing, an identity thief can also make use of the usual phishing scam or its partner pharming in order to victimize a company’s client base, usually by attacking a company’s computer network to harvest for personal client information.

The goal is to gain the client database of the company and gain access to clients’ credit accounts. In the end, the thief can clean out the client’s accounts before anyone else knows any better.

When an identity thief hacks a company’s database to hack their way into a company’s account, do spear phishing to get employee information, or access the clients’ database, you should learn to protect yourself from these thieves, gain useful information, and take steps to prevent hackers from accessing your account. Take. Simple steps you take can ensure that your identity will be safe from these hackers.