# What is Identity Theft?

> Identity theft is the unauthorized use of another person’s personal or financial information to impersonate them, obtain money, services, credit, benefits, employment, or medical care, or commit another deception.

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## Content

The information may come from a data breach, stolen documents, phishing, social engineering, public records, or people who already have legitimate access.

The misuse may affect an existing account or create a new relationship in the victim’s name. Organizations can reduce harm by collecting only necessary data, protecting it throughout its lifecycle, verifying risky applications and account changes, detecting fraud indicators, and giving affected people usable reporting and correction paths. Individual recovery steps vary by country, institution, and type of misuse.

### Key points

- **Common forms:** Payment and credit fraud, tax or benefit claims, medical-service use, employment fraud, and criminal impersonation can require different remedies.
- **Exposure versus misuse:** Loss or disclosure of personal information increases risk, but identity theft occurs when information is used without permission.
- **Response:** Contact affected providers, dispute unauthorized activity, secure related accounts, retain records, and use official reporting, credit-alert, or credit-freeze processes where available.
- **Important limitation:** Credit monitoring covers only certain financial-record changes. It may not reveal bank withdrawals, tax, medical, employment, benefits, or non-financial identity misuse.

### Related terms

[Account takeover (ATO)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/account-takeover/>) · [Phishing](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/phishing/>) · [Business email compromise (BEC)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/business-email-compromise/>) · [Data breach](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/data-breach/>) · [Internet fraud](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/internet-fraud/>)

### Sources

[FTC: What to Know About Identity Theft](https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-identity-theft) · [NIST glossary: Identity Fraud and Identity Theft](https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/Identity_Fraud_and_Identity_Theft)

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