What is Identity Theft?
What is Identity Theft?
Identity theft occurs when someone steals a piece of your personal information such as your account number, password, Social Security Number, or similar confidential information and uses it, or attempts to use it, to commit fraud.
Knowledge is key to protecting yourself and your assets. The following are some examples of typical actions that can lead to identity theft:
- Shoulder Surfing - Criminals may look over your shoulder while you're using an ATM, writing a check at a merchant establishment, or using a personal computer, for the purpose of gaining access to identifying information.
- Mail Box Raiding - Criminals may look for mailboxes that have the red flag up, indicating that outgoing mail is inside, and then steal credit card payments. Or they may take pre-approved credit offers or convenience checks from incoming mail delivered to your mailbox.
- Dumpster Diving - Criminals may look through the trash, whether it's the dumpster outside of a store or the trash cans in the front of your house to obtain personal information about you.
- Business Infiltration, Burglary, and Theft - Criminals may also infiltrate and burglarize a business to obtain customer records.
- Phishing - Sometimes called "spoofing," phishing is a high-tech fraud that uses seemingly legitimate emails in an attempt to deceive you into disclosing personal and financial information. If you receive an email from Wilmington Trust that you believe might be suspicious, please forward the email immediately to Phishing@mtb.com.
- Site Cloning - This high-tech fraud uses legitimate-looking logos and branding, web links, and graphics to replicate or clone a real website, thus attempting to mislead you into believing it is the website of your bank, Internet service provider, or the like. By directing you via email to this fraudulent clone and encouraging you to sign in, the identity thief tries to extract your personal information to gain unauthorized access to your bank or financial accounts.
If you suspect that you are a victim of identity theft as a result of any of
these types
of actions, please contact Wilmington Trust immediately
at 1-800-724-2440.
