We all know identity theft and scams can happen via cold calls or phishing emails, but sometimes it’s the people closest to us doing the dirty. We call this “familiar fraud.”
Familiar fraud is an identity-based crime perpetrated by someone known to the victim. It can leave lasting damage to a victim’s reputation and finances, and of course be the source for deep emotional distress.
Accurate statistics are hard to come by and incidents frequently go unreported, but a recent report suggested familiar fraud accounts for at least 7 percent of identity fraud-related crimes, with the number affecting children significantly higher.
In this week’s episode of What the Hack with Adam Levin, we talked to a victim who asked his name to be withheld for reasons of personal safety. Loki’s romantic partner stole his identity, used it to scam people on a dating app and got him embroiled in a police investigation.
Listen to find out more about familiar fraud and how to protect against this creepily intimate form of identity-related crime.
Also discussed: Deepfakes get more sophisticated.
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What the Hack with Adam Levin is available wherever you get your audio.
Read the transcript here.
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