I feel like it’s only really a threat if you have things to lose, but if someone already has no money or assets or bad credit, what is there to lose?
In: Other
If they commit a financial crime, and the police are convinced it was you, you can go to jail. That’s uncommon, but worse than being poor with bad credit.
With not much other information they can open accounts and commit bank fraud with your SSN. Or just simply open a credit card and max it out.
Other forms of identity theft are not necessarily impossible.
With additional information, it could be possible for a malicious individual to potentially access healthcare or education records tied to your name, or fabricate other documents as well to obtain a driver’s license in your name.
Even with bad credit your identity is incredibly important, having access to your SSN and the publicly available information about you a criminal can produce false documents, false employment, take loans out; bad credit stops you from getting good loans not loans at all, they can open utility accounts and buy cars
And not all of this is legit, they could have a dealer they work with or a loan company they run
I had my identity stolen. It came from an employer of mine. Was made available on the internet with everything needed to access my credit including my home address at the time. Here is a sample of what I experienced.
* Many credit cards opened in my name. Had to sue everyone and in the case of one credit reporting agency I had to sue them twice for the same debt. (Those credit freezes are a joke).
* Many people opened bank accounts and wrote bad checks.
* Every year people filed fraudulent tax returns in my name. I had jobs in all 50 states at one point.
* I had people who are here illegally use my name and social to get jobs.
* I had my wages garnished for taxes from jobs I never held and never knew about till the wage garnishes came in. Lost a good job as a result of one of those.
* Someone bought a house in my name. But only to use as collateral for 2nd mortgages and other loans against the asset.
* One person (that I am aware of) who had a driver’s license with my info but his picture on it. He had a warrant for his arrest (well technically me) and I got arrested at gunpoint. Thankfully the charges against me were dropped due to a very good lawyer who was able to prove identity theft.
* l was unable to get an apartment for a number of years due to how bad my credit was. I was making six figures at the time.
* I had to pay cash for nearly everything normal people would use credit for. Couldn’t even open a bank account for a while due to all the bad checks having been thrown around.
Eventually, I was able to clear it all up but it took over a decade and hundreds of thousands in attorneys fees which were thankfully done on contingency fees. I had a couple of great law firms who cleared it all up but it took forever. They did very well out of the deal financially. It also involved a lot of help from law enforcement, the IRS, and the social security dept.
All this because someone was able to make available my social security number and home address on the internet.
Latest Answers