The current national average of employment fraud is 14 percent of all reported identity theft occurrences. Employment fraud comes in two styles with the first type being where someone steals your social security number to get employment. With the ever increasing influx of illegal immigrants looking for work in the United States, the chance of somebody using your social security number to find gainful employment is on the rise. In fact, about two percent of victims over the age of 60 reported that an identity thief used their personal information for employment purposes. While you can reduce the possibility of this crime by keeping tight control of who has access to your social security number, there are no guarantees as many of these illegal immigrants will pick as social security number at random. While most people utilizing this method are simply people looking for work and not true identity thieves, the method is still illegal and can cause some negative effects for the victim. One reason that this type of fraud is so hard to contain is that farmers and packers are much more concerned about the getting cheap labor then they are with following regulations dealing with employment fraud by illegal immigrants.

The second type of employment fraud should be particularly concerning to most Americans as this is the practice of a thief obtaining employment in small businesses such as doctor’s offices, dentists, and banks to gain access to patient or customer records. Because it is the responsibility of a business to keep their records safe, there is very little an individual can do about this type of crime other then choose only well known and reputable businesses with a strong privacy policy. Employment fraud of this type is one of the most common forms of fraud and often goes unprosecuted. If someone obtains employment for the purpose of stealing personal information, there are currently no laws if effect that will help to track that person after they have been fired or quit. In addition, this type of problem can happen because of normal employees who are 100% honest but a bit on the lazy side. The company may have a policy of shredding all sensitive documents but the lazy employee may decide that it is much easier to dump all paperwork in recycle bins when the boss is not looking.

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The identity theft criminal has many ways to abuse your personal information and utility fraud is one of their favorite schemes. Utility fraud is currently rated the number two type of fraud in the United States and is actually higher then credit card fraud in certain states. Utility fraud is relatively easy to commit and is the practice of an identity thief using your personal information to obtain utility accounts such as gas, electric, water and sewer, cable, and other services. The thief can also setup telecommunication accounts such a home or cell phone and in many cases a thief needs only your name, address and phone number to commit utility fraud. About 15 percent of senior victims report that an identity thief obtained unauthorized telecommunications or utility equipment or services in their name. In order to avoid utility fraud it is imperative that you keep a tight rein on all of your personal information. Burn or shred any documents or mail with your personal information on it instead of putting it in the trash as many thieves are not above dumpster diving.

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The methods a criminal may use to obtain your personal identification are as varied as the victims themselves and while there is never a guarantee of not becoming a victim, there are certain steps one can take to greatly reduce the danger. While identity theft criminals have developed many ways of gaining access to your personal information and are continuing to come up with new ideas all of the time, the most widely methods used are still the easiest ones to block which can make prevention easier. Below is a list of the most widely used methods an identity theft criminal will use to gain access to your personal information.

Dumpster Diving: This the process where a criminal digs through trash, hoping to find discarded items such as credit card bills, bank account statements, and other mail which may include sensitive personal information.

Skimming: This is a process where a criminal sets up a special storage device that captures your credit card information when making a purchase.

Phishing: This is a newer technique that became available with the advent of the internet and email. A criminal will pretend to be a representative of a financial institution and will send emails stating that your account appears to have been compromised and lead you to a website where you can straighten things out. This is a scam and you will be asked to verify certain personal information that the thief should not have.

Pretexting: Once a criminal already has some of your information, they will contact your bank or creditors and using a bogus excuse will persuade the institution to supply additional information to them.

Physical stealing: This is the oldest method around and is just as it sounds. A criminal will simply steal somebody’s wallet or purse to see if any sensitive information can be obtained.

Once a criminal has access to the above information, they can, and often do, take steps to guarantee that you won’t be aware of any activity until it is too late. Crimes such as this include opening a bank account using your name and Social Security number but with an alternate address so you are not aware of the new account or stealing your credit card number then submitting a change of address so you don’t get any bills showing suspicious transactions. Some people may catch on fairly quickly with the credit card scheme because they are no longer getting expected billing statements but often times the new bank account scheme doesn’t get caught for quite some time. Either way, the victim may not realize what is going on until they start getting notices from bill collectors for debts that they did not incur and by then it may be too late for a simple solution. Once you know how a criminal can steal your information and hide the fact from you, you need to understand what steps you can take to minimize your risk.

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