IDENTITY THEFT How it happens

Some of the ways impostors can get your personal information and take over your identity.
Steal wallets and purses containing your identification and credit and bank cards.
Steal your mail, including your bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, new checks, and tax information.
Complete a "change of address form" to divert your mail to another location.
Rummage through your trash, or the trash of businesses, for personal data in a practice known as "Dumpster diving."
Fraudulently obtain your credit report by posing as a landlord, employer or someone else who may have a legitimate need for, and legal right to, the information.
Find personal information in your home.
Use personal information you share on the Internet.
Scam you, often through e-mail, by posing as legitimate companies or government agencies you do business with.
Business record theft: Stealing your information files out of offices where you're a customer, employee, patient or student; bribing an employee who has access to your files; or "hacking" into electronic files.
How identity thieves use your personal information:
Call your credit card issuer and, pretending to be you, ask to change the mailing address on your credit card account. The impostor then runs up charges on your account. Because your bills are being sent to the new address, it may take some time before you realize there's a problem.
Open a new credit card account, using your name, date of birth and SSN. When they use the credit card and don't pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report.
Establish phone or wireless service in your name.
Open a bank account in your name and write bad checks on that account.
File for bankruptcy under your name to avoid paying debts they've incurred under your name, or to avoid eviction.
Use counterfeit checks or debit cards, and drain your bank account.
Buy cars by taking out auto loans in your name.
Give your name to the police during an arrest. If they're released from police custody, but don't show up for their court date, an arrest warrant is issued in your name.
More information: (877) ID-THEFT (877) 438-4338 www.consumer.gov/idtheft
Source: Federal Trade Commission