2 min read

Can I have Your Personal Information?

Can I have Your Personal Information?
Photo by rupixen.com / Unsplash

International Fraud Awareness Week 2018

Like every year, ACFE is celebrating the International Fraud Awareness Week to promote anti-fraud awareness and education. This year November 11-17 is being celebrated as International Fraud Awareness Week.

So, what is Fraud?

We may not think about it every day, but fraud affects our life more than we may realize. It’s more than just what made headlines. It is the intentional manipulation of the truth for financial or personal gain.

Check out this video from ACFE to see how fraud affects various aspects of our life.

Looking at the at some of the frauds and cyberattacks which made headlines last year like the Experian hack, one thing emerged that fraudsters are targeting the Personal Information of people.

What benefit fraudsters have by having your personal information? With your personal information in hand they can commit identity theft.

What is Identity Theft?

Identity theft is a crime where the fraudster obtains key pieces of personally identifiable information, such as Social Security or driver’s licence numbers, in order to impersonate you.

Identity theft can be categorized in two ways: (i) True name and (ii) Account takeover.

True-name identity theft means the imposter uses personal information to open new accounts. The fraudster might open a new credit card account. Fraudsters usually use such accounts to make large purchases that they never pay off. It is usually in true name fraud that a fraudster changes the billing address, so the victim does not find out about the delinquent account.

Account-takeover identity theft means the imposter uses personal information to gain access to the person’s existing accounts. Typically, the fraudster will change the mailing address on an account and run up a huge bill before the person whose identity has been stolen realizes there is a problem. The internet has made it easier for an identity thief to use the information they’ve stolen, because transactions can be made without any personal interaction.

Check out this video from ACFE to know the various ways fraudsters try to steal your identities and how you can protect yourself.

Show your support towards the global effort to minimize the impact of fraud by promoting anti-fraud awareness and education by becoming a supporter at http://www.fraudweek.com.