According to the FBI, identity theft is the fastest growing white-collar crime in America . Identity theft is normally a circumstantial crime and identity thieves will not discriminate between victims. Most of us work hard in order to earn what we have in life and establish a good reputation within our social circle. A severe enough case of identity theft can literally ruin the victim's life. Identity thieves feed off of this type of good reputation to build a name and reputation for themselves based on the identity of the victim and take advantage of the situation by using the victim's identity for their own financial gains.

A clever identity thief can use your name and information for months without your knowledge, sometimes making the minimum payments on any accounts he/she opens so as to keep that credit line available longer. You might not find out what is happening until he/she uses the credit to its maximum limit and then stops paying, causing the creditor to send collectors out to find you to settle the debt.

So, how do identity thieves manage to get your personal information and commit Identity Theft?

Identity theft can occur in many ways. Identity thieves use a variety of means both high tech and extremely common low tech means to gain access to your personal information.

The most commons ways that these impostors can siphon your personal information and take over your identity are mentioned below:

1. Steal Business Information: Identity thieves manage to get hold of your business records. They manage to get of these by stealing files from places where you may be a customer, employee, patient or a student. Other methods are befriending your employees or bribing the employees who may have access to your important information. Some time high tech means are used to hack into your business computers or hacking into your organization files.
   
   
2. Shoulder Surfing: Although intelligent but Shoulder Surfing is a low tech method of stealing information. A "shoulder-surfing" identity thief, standing very close to you in a checkout line will memorize your name, address and phone number during the short time it takes for you to write a check. An identity thief can stand near a public phone and watch you punch in your phone or credit card numbers or even listen in when you give your credit-card number over the phone for a hotel room or rental-car. Keep a watch out for people standing near you in the checkout line at retail stores, restaurants, grocery stores, etc who have a camera cell phone in hand. With the camera cell phones, they can take a picture of your credit card, which gives them your name, number, and expiration date.
   
   
3. Dumpster Diving: Dirty but a very efficient way to steal information is Dumpster Diving. This method has been known to be used even by big corporate to steal information regarding their competitor's secrets. Identity thieves rummage through your trash, or the trash of businesses, and landfills for personal data.
   
   
4. Imposing as Authority: Identity thieves can get hold of your sensitive data by posing as Authoritative figures or others who may have a legitimate need/right to your information. Identity thieves fraudulently obtain credit reports by abusing their employer's authorized access to credit reports, or by posing as landlords, employers.
   
   
5. Skimming: Skimming is a high tech Identity theft method. Identity thieves steal your credit card or debit card account numbers while your card is being processed at a restaurant, store or other business location, using a special data collection mechanism also known as skimmer's.

Some of the older and very low tech Identity Theft methods are:

• Stealing your wallets or purses that contain your identity cards or credit cards.
  
  
• Identity thieves keep a constant on your mail box and steal your incoming mails, credit card statements or any other communication from a financial institution.
  
  
• Completing a "change of address form" to divert your mail to another location.
  
  
• Stealing personal information from your home.
  
  
• Using personal information you share on the Internet.
  
  
• Scamming information from you, often through email, by posing as legitimate companies or government agencies.