About ID theft

In short, ID theft is when someone other than you are using your personal information to commit fraud, scams, or other criminal acts. No matter what crime is committed they all have in common that the criminal is masquerading as you, often in pursuit of financial gain or sensitive information.

Personally identifiable information (PII) includes for instance: Your full name, home address, email address, login credentials, your personal identification number, ID-card, passport, or anything else that can be used for personal identification.

Typical signs include:

If you recognize these signs and believe that you have been a victim of identity theft, contact your bank and insurance company and file a police report immediately.

There is a myriad of ways in which a criminal can get hold of your information. Some of the most notable are:

Your personal data was stolen in a breach

Data breaches happen all the time. Big companies like Google and Facebook have been breached, as well as smaller companies. This means that billions of personal records, login credentials etc. are already circulating in shady parts of the internet. In other words: there is a high risk that your personal information is already in the open.

You got duped into giving it away yourself

One of the most common ways for this to happen is that you fall for a so-called phishing attempt, e.g., the criminal sends you an email masquerading as your bank asking for your personal information.

It was stolen physically

This includes getting your wallet or purse stolen. In the past there were cases were criminals stole physical mail or looked through the trash in search for personal information. Nowadays this is approach is extremely uncommon. Stealing personal information online is simply more effective and involves less risk.

This is a just and understandable question, but unfortunately it is also linked to the fact that the awareness and knowledge on this topic is poor for many.

In short, it is usually nothing personal and it is quite rare that you in specific are the main subject for the initial attack but that doesn´t help due to the approach and nature of this crime. Today criminals are primarily focused on targeting companies with large databases because they will then get access to large volumes of personal data, regardless of who they belong to. The problem is though that it is this kind of data and information we all leave behind when we shop online or use these types of services. And above all, it is exactly this type of information that is “big business” in the criminal world and that later is further circulated and sold with criminal intent and thereby exploited by others. In other words, you will risk becoming a victim even though you were not the target in the first place. 

No, far from it. There is normally a time span from when the attack took place and the leak occurred until the information actually is exploited and misused. And it is in this time span where you have the chance to act and where our specific service comes in. That is why we sometimes refer to our services as a “digital fire alarm”.