Identity crimes were on the wane last year, but job scams were on the rise, according to new data from the Identity Theft Resource Center .
Once they’d hooked victims, they moved the interview process off of the original platform to email, text, or video conferencing and had people fill out “paperwork” that included sensitive information, including their Social Security number and driver’s license number. Once they supplied that data, the scam employer vanished.
Identity thieves, the group said, are getting better at looking and sounding"legitimate" in their mining efforts, likely due to the assistance of artificial intelligence. That’s making them bolder about how they misuse the stolen identity, opening new lines of credit and other accounts.