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.