Criminal identity theft occurs when an impostor commits a crime and provides your personal information, such as a drivers' license, date of birth, or social security number, to the authorities when they are investigated or arrested. More often than not, impostors agree to appear in court but fail to do so, resulting in a warrant for arrest under the victim's name. Sadly, victims are often acquainted with the perpetrators, who may be close friends or family members of the victims.
To protect yourself, peruse our Identity Theft pages and follow the prevention guidelines. Besides ordering your credit history from the three credit bureaus each year, periodically obtain a copy of your driver's license record from your local DMV. Also, order a copy of your Personal Earnings and Benefits Estimate Statement from the Social Security Administration. Specifics on how to do so can be found on the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website.
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Desco Federal Credit Union
provides links to various alternate web sites throughout
our site. When you click on a link, you can see that you
have left the Desco web site by checking the address
line in your browser: the address will no longer begin with
https://www.descofcu.org. Alternate sites are not operated by Desco. Desco is not responsible for, and exercises no control over the alternate web sites, nor does it vouch for the accuracy, privacy, or security of the information on the destination server. Desco does not represent either the alternate web site or the user if the two enter into a transaction. Privacy and security policies of alternate web sites may differ from those practiced by Desco. |
For additional information on the problem of criminal identity theft, see the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse presentation on "The Growing Problem of Wrongful Criminal Records."