• Identity theft is a fast-growing problem.Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  When you hear the term identity theft, you may automatically think of credit card fraud. Identity theft can actually go far beyond someone using your credit card and charging items with it. In some cases identity theft occurs as a means of covering up a criminal's true identity. Identity theft is rapidly increasing, and knowing what types of theft exist can help to prevent you from becoming a victim.
  
  

Check Fraud

• Creating fake checks, ordering checks to be printed in someone else's name, or forging someone else's checks are bank-based identity theft. Since it takes time for account holders and bank representatives to catch on to the fact that money has been issued to someone other than the checking account holder, this remains a popular form of identity theft among fraud-inspired criminals.
  
  

Social Security Fraud

• Some thieves make up Social Security numbers that may belong to someone else, or use Social Security numbers from deceased people to commit crimes. Since Social Security numbers are necessary for a multitude of verified transactions, illegal immigrants and people with very bad credit histories believe they can find temporary solutions through this type of fraud.
  
  

Phishing

• In today's computer-based society, almost every Internet user has either observed or even been the victim of some form of phishing. In this type of identity theft, the thief hacks into your e-mail and uses your online identity in order to send misleading and fraudulent emails that replicate genuine messages from a website, and ask people to update their bank account or personal information. If the recipient falls for this scam and enters their information, the thief then has access to whatever was provided. Phishing sometimes also happens via phones when the thief pretends to be a billing center asking for payment information.