Are You Aware of The Negative Effects Identity Theft Will Have on Your Life?

Last Update: February 12, 2021 • Identity Theft •

Every grown-up now realizes that identity theft is the number one crime in most developed countries. It has grown to be an endemic putting every person at significant risk. Most individuals don’t know that their identity is stolen until it’s too late to add salt to the injury.

But we all admittedly confess that we have to deal with identity theft’s biggest misconception that only affects those with credit cards. If you believe that identity theft affects only those with credit cards, you must continue reading this article.

Types of Identity Theft

Apart from identity theft related to credit, below are four other sets of identity theft that don’t actually affect your credit but can totally ruin your life.

Character identity theft

In this case of identity theft, an individual impersonates you and goes ahead committing a crime using your name, and as a result, a warrant is issued in your name, an arrest is made.

Social Security Number (SSN) identity theft

Somebody uses your SSN to get employment without your consent. In such a case, the person who employed the thief record and reports salaries earned under your SSN, make you pay for the income taxes resulting from these earnings. No doubt, losing your SSN to crooks can deny you some life-sustaining benefits.

Medical identity theft

Are you looking to have your blood check for HIV but don’t want it to be included in your personal medical record? Or you really don’t want to pay for surgery? Well, Use another person’s identity. Do you think it is impossible and awkward? Quite the reverse, it’s all easy. Due to this – false information on your medical record, you can easily be denied health coverage or, worse, lose your health insurance.

Driver’s license identity theft

An individual can commit a traffic offense using your name and later fail to appear in court. As a result, a warrant for your arrest is issued.

A real situation. Sara’s driving license was stolen by an identity thief who was later arrested for careless driving. And now, because of the poor driving record, her license is suspended, and she is at risk of losing her auto insurance.

Credit identity theft

An identity thief can use your personal information to access loans, goods, or even services without paying the bills. The unpaid bills accumulate hence leading to a poor credit report.

So am sure you are now convinced that an identity thief can easily ruin your life apart from just spoiling your credit report. No one is immune. According to a report by the Identity Theft Resource Center, there have been about 120 disclosed cases of data breaches since the beginning of 2005. This means that about 53 million people will be in danger of losing their identity to thieves. Note that this number could even be on the rise, as reported by the FTC, revealing that over 25,000 people lose their identity to crooks every single day.

There is no guarantee that anyone’s information is 100% safe. So long as companies and medical facilities, and many other employers have your personal information, you will always be a target. An employer can always willingly give out your information, or it can be stolen from him. A specific cellular phone company had the same experience after some of the employees created fake accounts. Identity thieves used these falsified accounts to ring up hundreds of thousands of dollars just in calls.

Being proactive is basically the only thing you need to do when it comes to safeguarding your identity. This will save you a lot of frustration, time, and even expenses trying to restore your identity. You can do other things to ensure your identity is intact; always shred your mails and don’t always walk with your SSN card with you. Additionally, nonstop monitoring of your credit is one of the best and easy way of watching your credit regularly. Always learn to report any suspicious activity you notice in your credit report.

So what happened if you lose your Identity to thieves? Below I have highlighted some of the most unique and less known consequences.

Less Known Consequences of Identity Theft

I believe that everyone today knows about all the other basic penalties of ID theft. In most cases, the consequences aren’t hard to deal with. In fact, they are easy to deal with. For instance, well-established banks and credit card firms are at the forefront of eliminating ID fraud. Even though their procedures are not fail-safe, they go a long way in ensuring that taxpayers save a reasonable amount of money that would have otherwise been lost to ID thieves. On the other hand, we have consequences that can be very costly compared to all these charges.

Every individual needs to be vigilant and well informed of the consequences of identity theft. In fact, it is much better to be always prepared.

Job applications and background checks

It is possible that ID thieves can ruin your chances of getting your dream job. Yes, you can be very clean with no criminal records, but if your identity is stolen and used to commit crimes, it will get into records, and every time a background check is done, it will always pop up. The worst thing is that you might be ignorant of such an occurrence. Well, not being hired after a successful job interview is regular. In fact, employers never submit your background records right after an interview.

Eligibility to get loans

FICO score can be affected by ID theft. Even if you always pay your bill in time, lenders can highlight you as high risk. This is when you realize that buying a car or even a house is no longer a routine. As a matter of fact, it will be one of the almost impossible things to do. You will have to suffer the consequence of bankruptcy and clear all your loans.

Difficulty pursuing graduate education

You will agree with me that higher education has become extremely competitive today. And for this reason, Graduate-level programs frequently carry out background and credit checks to determine the applicant’s character. In most situations, admissions officers don’t have enough time to go through all the applications presented. So, a mediocre credit report or criminal record is enough to land your application in the trash can. And you certainly will never know the cause.