Identity theft can take many forms. An illegal immigrant may use you NRIC number and date of birth for employment purposes or to obtain a birth certificate. Imagine the confusion that can be created when the IRS wants to know why you did not declare the extra income reported to them from someone using your name and NRIC number.
Most often, an identity thief will obtain your personal identification numbers from the trash and obtain credit in your name by having credit cards, goods or services delivered to their address or mail drop. Since the bills for the charges incurred with be sent to the thief's address, not yours, you will be unaware that debt is mounting up in your name until the collections department tracks you down. By then your credit report will already be riddled with late payment histories and show many accounts in collections. As you can imagine, the credit reporting bureaus will be reluctant to change negative credit without proof that you had not created the bad credit.
Identity theft can significantly traumatise anyone because it is unnerving to know (or not know) the extent of the damage to your name, credit or reputation. There have been cases reported where victims took many years to restore their credit and good names, and had problems cashing cheques, obtaining loans or even renting apartments.
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