A thief who steals your credit card and go about a shopping spree is just a basic case of identity theft. You can usually easily sort this out by informing your bank and report it to the police. It is the more serious players who you should put your fear on. Because by the time they are done with scamming you, you could be left with mountains of debt that can be difficult to explain to the very people who are out to help you. And that is just the best case scenario. Here’s how a professional can wreck your life if left without a care in the world.
Identifying prospects
Professionals don’t go about targeting a specific person unless they hold a grudge of some sort. They use software programs putting up legitimately looking websites to collect personal information on potential targets. The average person might think that these activities take a lot of work, but with the proper software, it can be as simple a few clicks of buttons. With the amount of money being transacted over the internet these days, it has become so easy for someone to lower his guard and enter his information. The victim who enters the most amount of information will become a prime target.
Get a fake address
A fake ID with your details on it can be fabricated for less than $50. And with so many businesses going digital, these days you do not even have to be present physically to open account and conduct business. Very often all that is needed is a scanned copy of identity cards to candidate a person’s identity. Meaning a fraudster might not even need to buy a fake ID. All he needs to do is spend an hour on Photoshop to create these digital IDs. And don’t worry about a soft copy not looking genuine. A simple action script will make it look more authentic than the real thing. The fake ID can be used to open a PO Box receiving all the mail supposedly sent to you.
Open bank accounts in your name
It is astonishing how anyone can open bank accounts without meeting any banker face-to-face. All you need is to fill in your details in an application form and scan all required documents over with a black and white scanner. Documents don’t even have to be in color! The furthest a bank might go to verify and ID could be a signature somewhere with the scanned copy of your ID. You might think that a bank would have a record of an authentic signature and will be able to spot fakes from the genuine ones. Forgery is one way to get around that. Or just go to a bank who you have never dealt with. This way they have no way of knowing what your real signature looks like.
Create consistency and credibility
This is the part that will truly destroy you. They won’t be destroying your account. On the contrary, the bad guy will be building the most beautiful transactional records of debits and credits you will ever see. It will be done over a period of 3 to 12 months. Why is that so? Because for bigger loans and huge credit facilities, personal accounts of between 3 to 12 months would be required. In fact, if the criminal knows exactly what he is doing, he will know that personal bank statements can be a legitimate verification of personal income.
Showtime
The stage is set and the props are now ready. Everything is in place for a spending spree. They take mega cash loans to buy sports cars, houses, expensive vacations, all in your name. The bills will be charged to you. And the statements will be sent to that postal address they set up in your name. This is the end-game and they have no intention of prolonging the game they have been playing.
Vanishing act
You wouldn’t even know anything is amiss until someone comes knocking on your door one day threatening to foreclose your house. This is when you will suffer a mental breakdown trying to comprehend what had happened and whether you are dreaming. By this time, the bad guy is already long gone and identifying a new target. You will then be left to explain yourself for things you did not do.
It can sound terrifying to be a victim of hardcore identity theft. So you should always be on your guard to prevent identifying yourself as a prime target to begin with.