What is identity theft?
Identity theft happens when someone takes and uses your without your permission.
Types of personal information they take may include your:
- name
- address
- date of birth
- social insurance number
- bank accounts
- credit card numbers
Identity thieves may use your personal information to do things like:
- apply for credit cards, bank loans, and other kinds of
- take money from your bank accounts and shop with your credit cards
- apply for social assistance, rent an apartment, or buy furniture or other goods with a store loan
In the end, you may have to pay for what they did when pretending to be you.
This type of is called identity .
Sometimes identify thieves also take the personal information of people who have died and pretend to be them.
A stolen identity can make things very difficult for you. You may have trouble getting approval for things like a bank loan, credit card, or mortgage, or even being able to rent an apartment. It can be very hard to improve your credit rating after a case of identity theft.
You may also have to spend a lot of time:
- fixing mistakes on your
- dealing with payments for things you did not buy
- closing accounts opened in your name
