Identity theft is one of the newer crimes that have taken the world in its grip. There are criminals who try to identify a person who is having a big bank balance and then they take over the identity of the person by thieving all the personal records about that person. Once this is done, they try to make sure that they are able to masquerade as the other person and buy things using credit cards. They also commit various online and offline crimes using the details f the individual. This makes them to escape the hands of the police and the innocent person whose identity was stolen is made the scapegoat.

There are various reasons for this method of identity theft that criminals use. They are as follows:

1. Easy:

This method of committing a crime is very simple. This especially happens in the United States and other countries where the details of a person can all be found out with the social security number of the person. As the whole world and the developed society is moving towards this method of identification numbers, security numbers and use of online methods to purchase and sell products, it is very easy for the criminals to just use these numbers to try and cheat other people.

2. No trace of the crime:

The lack of any trace of the crime that was committed is another reason for the numbers of crimes done using identify theft. Once the crime has been committed, the police trace the identity of the person and then finally realize that the person whose identity was used for the crimes actually did not commit the crime. The time taken for all the procedures and the identification process helps the real criminals to make off with the money and are usually not traceable.

3. No hard work needed:

The lack of any hard work when the person is using identity theft as a means of committing a crime makes it very easy for the criminals. All that the criminals have to do is to use the social security number of the people whose identity has been stolen and commit the crimes from a computer terminal. This will need very minimal work and so it is very simple for the crime to be committed.

How to protect against identity theft:

There are various things that you can do to protect yourself from identity theft and these are very simple measures, but they will be very effective. The first and foremost thing that you have to do is to be very careful with your personal details and make sure that you do not give away your personal information on the internet or any other place intentionally or unintentionally. Other than this, you should also remember that you should make sure that your computer is protected by adequate spy ware and also anti virus software that protects all the personal details that are stored on your computer. This will help to make sure that your identity is not stolen from you.

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