Identity fraud, according to Wikipedia is “a form of fraud in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person’s identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person’s name. The victim of identity theft (here meaning the person whose identity has been assumed by the identity thief ) can suffer adverse consequences if he or she is held accountable for the perpetrator’s actions.”
But how can an identity be ‘stolen’? In a time when almost anything can be done on a computer, phishing is a common process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communication claiming to be from a popular social web site, for example, can be used to lure the unsuspecting public.
Usually in the form of an e-mail or instant message, phishing typically directs recipients to enter details at a fake website which has been designed to closely resemble a legitimate one. The fraudsters then have the information they need to pose as the person who supplied the details, and the information is used for activities such as opening accounts or purchasing items fraudulently.
The public is regularly warned of such threats, but what about those phone calls we may innocently answer…