Protect your identity To avoid identity theft, be cautious about
the identifying information you share -- and not just online.
You also need to be careful about what you share over the
telephone. Take precautions to deter identity theft, bank
account fraud, credit card fraud and other criminal uses of your
personal information. What is pretexting? You may have heard
about phishing scams -- emails and online messages that try to
fool people into giving up their Social Security number,
passwords and financial information -- but do you know about
pretexting? Pretexting is when criminals aim to get your
personal information over the phone using false pretenses.
Pretexters gather information and sell it to other individuals
and criminal companies that may use it to steal your money, get
credit in your name, sue you or otherwise use your identity.
Those pretexters use a number of different tactics to try to
secure your personal information -- the most common way is
through a phone call. Usually the pretexter claims