In part one of this series, what was discussed was the potential of identity thieves to be able to use your personal information to purchase things over the internet. The first article discussed the problems that identity thieves face in utilizing your credit card information as well as the techniques that they can use to overcome these problems. There are many different ways for the identity thief to get your credit card number and personal information as well as utilize that personal information at different stores. While the methods covered in the first article will give the identity thief a lot of options when it comes to making purchases, at the same time the methods covered in the first article will not allow the identity thief to have complete control over everything. They do have carte blanche in making purchases, but in this case even carte blanche has its limitations.

One of the biggest limitations to the identity thief is the fact that a lot of these companies that conduct business online require a valid shipping address that matches the same shipping address that the credit card company keeps on file for each of their customers. So, while a person might be able to purchase an e-book over the internet from a place like ClickBank, getting a computer shipped to their house is quite a different matter entirely. Shipping requires an address and that address requires a person to have a matching billing address for the credit card that they use.

What's the solution to this problem? Well, the only solution that is feasible would be for the identity thief to change the billing address on the credit card to either their own or alternatively one that they can access. This should be impossible...right? Well, this is perhaps the one thought that sinks a number of people when it comes to identity theft; thinking that something is so outrageous that it must be difficult bordering on impossible to do. Unfortunately, this is simply not the case. In order to change an address over the phone with a credit card company, the identity thief needs to have a few things in their possession. First, they need your full name and date of birth. Then, they also need the credit card number, your mother's maiden name and quite possibly even your social security number.

Is there a way to obtain these? You bet there is! Something called a credit report. The big three credit agencies of Experian, Equifax and Trans Union do not have particularly tight protocols when it comes to security, since a number of people might request a credit report of someone that is not them. Credit card companies, car dealerships, banks and many other institutions do this all the time. So the identity thief merely has to pretend to be an agent for one of these places, pay the $7 fee and quicker than you can blink the credit report and all of your personal information is smack dab in their hands.

This is just one of many methods the professional identity thief will know how to employ. They are very good at what they do, so the only way to really protect yourself is to make sure that first piece of information, which credit card number and your name, do not get into their hands. Protecting your information is absolutely the best path to take here and while in any other field an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, in the field of identity theft an ounce of prevention is worth an infinite amount of cure.

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