Phishing Scams Can Lead to Identity Theft: People are now more prone to fall prey to cases of identity theft than other forms of cybercrime, with phishing being the ultimate precursor.
For your identity to be stolen, a criminal must get their hands on your personal details. This is all it takes to start opening several bank accounts, sending applications for credit cards, and worse, getting false identity documents under your name.
There are several techniques that cybercriminals use for stealing personal information with phishing being the most common.
If there is a random person who comes up to you, shows a business card that looks legit and official, and asks for your Social Security Number, driver’s license, or other sensitive data, it is very unlikely that you will give them such information.
But, for some unknown reasons, it seems that it is easier for most people to be duped if online transactions are involved. It makes it easier to trick unknowing users and this is the reason why phishing scams have become more rampant than ever.
When you speak of phishing, this is the act of obtaining the sensitive information of the victims through posting as trusted organizations and companies. It is often done through the use of spoofed websites and spoofed emails that immediately ask for different kinds of information. Phishing has a lot of potential consequences, the worst of them all is none other than identity theft.
How is Phishing Used in Identity Theft?
Criminals take advantage of phishing campaigns for harvesting the data they need for stealing several identities.
Most of the time, what happens is that the criminal will send a fraudulent email to the targets that purport to come from a legit company, like a building society or bank. These emails are usually rudimentary yet they can employ different psychological concepts in order to lure you in the end.
This kind of emails may claim that there are criminals trying to gain access to your bank account, for instance, that may elicit panic. After your emotions have gotten the best of, criminals will give you a simple solution.
They will tell you to click on a fraudulent link that will then direct you to a fraudulent site. You will then be asked to verify your name, date of birth, email address, national insurance number and maybe even a PIN. They will convince you that you will be free of your worries once you are done.
But, as expected, this tale is nothing but a fabricated one. Instead of keeping your account secured, verifying your personal details only made you hand them over to the fraudulent criminals. Now that they already got their hands on your personal data, these criminals will now be able to steal your identity and you even played a role in making things even easier for them.
If phishing results to identity theft, it makes sense that you do your very best to ensure that you don’t fall prey to all those phishing scams that are growing in number every year.