What is Criminal Identity Theft? | Legalshield Associate Blog

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Blog Identity Theft

What is Criminal Identity Theft?

June 2024

Criminal identity theft happens when someone who is cited or arrested for a crime uses someone else’s personal information as ID. The result: a criminal record now exists in the name of the person whose ID was hijacked. This can have all sorts of repercussions, and none of them are good. Which is why we are here to review the various ways you can detect criminal identity theft and what you can do should it happen to you.

How a criminal gets your ID

Unfortunately, there are numerous ways a criminal can get your personal information such as:

Data breaches
Purchasing your Social Security number on the dark web
Wallet/purse/mail theft
Synthetic identity theft
‘Phishing’ expedition
Data brokers selling your personal information

Personal ID theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the country and can create multiple problems for your credit and reputation. Here, we’re focused on a fraudster’s use of your ID when cited for a crime.

What are the warning signs of criminal identity theft?

Here are the signs that a thief has used your ID when cited or arrested:

The police contacts, arrests or cites you for a crime that you did not commit.
You are denied housing, employment, admission to a school or the military
because of a criminal record that you do not have.
The government places you on the sex offender registry for a crime that you did not commit.
The state suspends your driver’s license because of a crime that you did not commit.
Your passport has been denied or revoked because of a crime that you did not commit.
The government threatens deportation for a crime that you did not commit.
You are being denied citizenship because of a crime that you did not commit.

Establishing your innocence

Once you have determined that you are the victim of criminal ID theft, the first thing you’ll want to do is establish your innocence by:

Contacting the police department that is in the jurisdiction reporting the crime.
File a police report with that police department stating you are a victim of identity theft.
Also file a separate ID theft report with the Federal Trade Commission at IdentityTheft.gov.
Ask the police for a copy of all arrest records using your information.
Offer to provide fingerprints, photographs and identifying documents so your information can be compared to what is on those arrest records.
Ask the police for a ‘clearance letter” or ‘certificate of release’ to declare your innocence. Ask if your clearance can be updated in all law enforcement data banks. Keep this ‘clearance letter’ on hand in case those updates take time.
Contact your state attorney general’s office to make sure your criminal record, caused by the ID theft, is expunged.
If your driver’s license has been suspended or revoked, thanks to criminal ID theft, be sure to contact the DMV, as well.

Protecting your personal information

The above article reviews all you should do just to correct the law enforcement and judicial problems caused by criminal ID theft. However, once your ID has been compromised, fraudsters can also wreak havoc on your credit, banking, tax returns, Social Security, even the deed to your own home. This is where IDShield comes in. We offer complete, best-in-class personal ID protection wherever you go, along with full-service ID restoration if theft occurs.