Types of Identity Theft Scams

In many cases identity thieves will try and scam their victims into revealing their personal data voluntarily, and they have a number of very simple but effective methods of doing this that can trick the unwary into compromising their own identities.  It is important that you learn more about the common ways in which identity thieves scam their victims, so that you will be able to spot and avoid any that are targeted at you in the future. Services like TrustedID may help.

Telephone Scams

There are a number of common telephone identity theft scams that are widely used by thieves and fraudsters and these include:

• Posing as an official employee scams – thieves will pose as an employee of a bank, business, lottery, charity or any other official organization and try and trick you into either sending them money for goods or services, or revealing your personal information to them such as your bank account details.
• Prize winning scams – another way thieves can trick you into revealing your information is by contacting you to inform you that you have won a prize (cash, holiday, white goods, new kitchen etc), and then they will try and get money or sensitive financial information out of you by saying that you need to pay for shipping or admin fees, or that they need your account information in order to pay in a cash prize for you.

Letter Scams

Mailing is a cheap and effective way for thieves to contact a large number of people at once, and there are a number of common scams used such as:

• Lottery Scams – these lottery scams tell you that you have won a prize in a lottery style game, and that you either need to phone a hotline to claim your prize (a high cost premium rate number), or that you need to send some money or buy more tickets in order to claim the big prize.
• Fake goods or services – fraudsters can also send out fake catalogues and special offers for goods or services but once you have paid you will receive nothing, or an inferior or counterfeit product in return.