Identity Theft in the Lowcountry

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission received about 800,000 complaints of fraud and identity theft. It costs consumers nearly $1.2 billion.

The most common forms of identity theft in the Lowcountry are shoulder surfing, phishing, dumpster diving, address changing and simple stealing.

Shoulder Surfing: The criminal listens to you making transactions or ordering on the phone and copy your personal information.

Phishing: People send fraudulent spam e-mails that look like legitimate banks and organizations, but they steal the information that you enter on the fake website.

Dumpster Diving: Criminals go through your trash looking for documents that you throw out without shredding information. They steal account and personal information.

Address Changing: Criminals take your mail, and change the address on your credit card bill to their address. They can make charges and you’ll never know because they get the statement.

Stealing: The oldest trick in the book, criminals simply take your wallet, purse or credit card.

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