Unlike the locked up laptop on the right, it is harder to prevent your email identity from being stolen. Email identity theft involves the fraudulent use of your email address for phishing or spamming. The usual victim of email identity theft is a commercial enterprise. Email identity theft is perpetrated for two purposes - to convince others that they are legitimate firms that have legitimate reasons for asking for people's financial information such as bank access, credit card numbers and so forth. This is phishing.

The second purpose behind email identity theft is for spamming. The most common of the ISPs and email providers have spam blockers. If, however, someone perpetrating email identity theft sends an email to an individual or firm under the guise of someone that person or firm knows the message will not be blocked.

Here are some tips on email identity theft prevention.

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There are many ways in which identity theft can be stolen from a person and carried out. Your credit cards can be used, your social security number could be used to get a job, your bank account and credit record could be used for loans and mortgages and so on. One type of identity theft you may not have thought about is medical identity theft. There is where someone uses your name in relation to medical activities. 

Some Examples of Medical Identity Theft include:

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Internet identity theft is a concern, or should be a concern for anyone who surfs the Internet or transacts business online. As more people become comfortable shopping online, the opportunity for internet identity theft increases. Every block that is established to protect a person’s identity, another breach is made enabling a dishonest person to steal their identity.

In some of the most prolific scams of internet identity theft involve someone simply being asked for their information and, as unfortunate as it may be, some people willingly provide the necessary information to allow someone to steal their identification. A name, social security number and an address is basically all that is needed to assume someone’s financial identity.

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Perhaps one of the oldest , and most dangerous forms of identity fraud is social security identity theft. When someone has your social security number, they, in the minds of most financial organizations, become you. This is why it is so important to protect your social security number and be very careful whom you give it to. Learn more about protecting yourself from social security identity theft. Social security identity theft occurs when a criminal or scammer gets a hold of your social security number. They then use it to apply for loans, get a visa or passport, or much more. The way someone usually finds out they have been a victim of social security identity theft is long after the theft of their personal information has occurred. They might start receiving calls from unknown creditors demanding payment for outrageously high credit card bills or other loans.

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With identity theft so prevalent, it is a prudent idea to check your credit report often. It will also help in fixing bad credit, or you just want to know what your credit history is like. Looking at your credit report gives you an idea of what a lender will see the next time you apply for a loan or mortgage.

A credit report is a register of a person’s credit history and is made up of four categories of data:

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