Pretexting – The New Identity Theft?
By admin • Feb 22nd, 2008 • Category: Credit Card Theft and Fraud, Identity Theft, Identity Theft Protection, Internet Scams, LifeLock, PhishingIf you were already worried about the increasing rate of identity theft, and the costs caused to both the companies and the individuals themselves, then you are in for an even bigger worry, and that is the new type of identity theft that is coming about, commonly called pretexting.
Pretexting is basically the art of lying. A person will conjure up an imaginary situation or scenario and use it to trick people out of their personal details or to participate in a certain act. The most common forms of this type of identity theft is done over the phone.
When a well known company phones you up, for example, a representative of a bank or credit card company, they will use personal information to allow you to know not only who they are, but also to prove that they are speaking to the right individual. Pretexting will work in exactly the same way. A person will find out information about you, prior to the phone call, or house visit, and then use it against you so that you believe they are a person of authority and from a legitimate company with a legitimate reason to ask you personal questions about your private details. This misconception will then allow you to divulge other information that you would normally only give to the people in the bank, as one example.
The person who is performing the art of pretexting will then use the details you have supplied to perform crimes related to identity theft – applying for loans or credit cards in your name and then stealing the successful applications from your mailbox before it reaches you. This is just one example of how that information can be used. It can be used for applying for passports and other official documents to be used in the act of illegal immigration, and also in terrorism and maybe even blackmail, against you, the identity holder.
Pretexters will impersonate anyone, from colleagues from your place of work, police officers, insurance company personnel, and also may pretend to be someone from banks, loan and credit card companies, the list goes on and on. How many times have you divulged information over the phone to someone who you believed had a legitimate reason to know the information? The chances are, it was a real person from a real company, and they weren’t pretexters, but in reality, how can you be so sure?
There are no definite answers on how to prevent this from happening, apart from – never give your personal details out over the phone or to someone that visits your home. Always go to the branch of your bank to sort out any problems, or phone the number back yourself to ensure you are actually phoning the right people, and not giving out details about yourself to just anyone! Just always be on your guard and if you don’t think it is real, don’t tell them anything!
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It is important that we should be on guard in situations like this. We should not easily trust people, especially if we are certain that we don’t have any transactions with those claiming to be legitimate companies, asking for your personal information. Next, if we are really not sure about people who just visit us or call us ‘impromptu’, with us having bare knowledge on what’s going on, better call the company itself and ask about the calls or visits. Since we are already in a fast paced world, identity thieves have this fast-paced tactics also that may fool us anytime. Let us take heed.