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Con strategies used by identity thefts

Identity thieves use various con games to target seniors. To begin with, there is medical related theft whereby they steal the social security or medical information of a senior and use it to make false medical claims. The thieves submit a claim to one’s insurance company to Medicare without authorization.

Secondly is estate identity theft where personal information of a deceased person is fraudulently used to seek loans, secure cell phone services, and open credit cards. Family members usually carry out estate theft, and it is normally hard to detect.

There is also tax fraud where the criminals will steal the social security number of a senior and use it to file fake tax returns and get one’s tax refund. The perpetrators can, at times, get personal information through a lost wallet or purse. Lastly, phone scams are very popular, where one is asked to send cash to help someone who is in trouble, mostly a family member.

How seniors can protect themselves from identity theft

LifeLock: this works with Norton anti-virus software, and it offers different levels of protection at different costs. LifeLock standard offers protection for the use of social security numbers, credit alerts, and attempts to change the address. LifeLock Advantage adds more protection, including identity monitoring, crimes in your name, data breach alerts, and credit card and bank activity alerts.

Identity Guard: employs AI of IBM’s Watson to check for unusual or suspicious activity connected to identity theft. It also offers different levels of service, including monitori8ng the dark web for your information.

PrivacyGuard: it monitors Social Security number, ID verification requests, online directories as well as public records. It identifies any issues with your ID through identity and credit fraud services.