The Three Types Of Commercial Identity Theft

Commercial identity theft can refer to any of three things. It can involve the thief accessing a firm's credit account. It can also mean the identity thief targeting all the employees in an organization. The thief targeting a firm's clients is the third kind of commercial identity theft.

Commercial Identity Theft - Commercial Credit

In this kind of commercial identity theft, the perpetrator gains access to the credit account, credit cards, and/or checking accounts of a targeted firm or enterprise.

The perpetrator can hack into the company's system to gain access. But it often happens that the thief is someone who is currently or was once connected with the company.

It is also possible that a skilled identity thief will hijack the firm's e-banking transactions, although the less sophisticated methods (e.g., stealing checks and stealing or counterfeiting credit cards) are more common.

With access to the company's credit accounts, checks, or virtual cash, the thief then makes purchases in the company's name. By the time the company receives collection notices and bills from angry suppliers, the thief is long gone – and the company's credit rating is damaged.

Commercial Identity Theft - Fish in a Barrel

This type of commercial identity theft hijacks the credit of people within an organization. This could involve the employees and/or executives of a company – as either the victims or the perpetrators.

This type of credit hijack can also use a method known as spear phishing, which uses e-mail, supposedly generated by a department within the organization. The e-mail will direct employees to a bogus website and ask for their personal information or will ask for an e-mail reply with the same info.

However, the usual method of this type of commercial identity theft involves the thief simply copying the database containing all the account and Social Security information and selling it to the highest bidder.

Once all employee account information has been compromised, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel for identity thieves who can victimize entire organizations before anyone notices what's going on.

Commercial Identity Theft - Client Hijack

This third kind of commercial identity theft can use either phishing or its cousin pharming (attacking a firm's computer network by planting trojans to harvest personal data).

Its goal is to tap into the client base of a bank or financial institution and hijack bank and credit accounts. The perpetrator can even manipulate investment portfolios. The end result: the thief will have cleaned out his victim's accounts before anyone discovers what happens.

Most banks in the US have already set up preventive measures – from simply e-mailing all their clients warning them about being too credulous to setting up software defenses in their servers and networks.

Next article: Using Your Credit Report To Uncover Identity Theft

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