An impostor is a person who makes a false claim to be someone else in order to deceive others for financial gain, forgery or other illegal purposes through various social networks. The impostor may thereby obtain key pieces of personal information such as a Social Security Number or a driver's license number.
The actions of an impostor are also referred to as identity theft.
Identity theft is often conducted electronically through hacking or phishing. To prevent identity theft, experts reccomend that people regularly check their credit reports, avoid giving out any personal information in response to unknown emails, always destroy digitally stored data and opt for safe online transactions.
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