| A | B |
|---|
| Social Security number (SSN) | a unique identifier issued by the Social Security Administration to all individuals |
| Shoulder surfing | the act of listening in or looking over someone’s shoulder to see information they can use to steal your identity |
| Social Networking | refers to a broad class of web sites and services that allow you to connect with friends, family, and colleagues online, as well as meet people with similar interests or hobbies, i.e. MySpace, Facebook |
| Blog | A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts |
| Scam | trickery used to gain information |
| Imposter | someone pretending to be another person |
| Forgery | creating a false document, altering a document or writing a false signature for the illegal benefit of the person |
| Identity Theft | a crime that occurs when a person steals your personal information and uses for self-gain |
| Fraud | a type of crime used to gain services, money, and information |
| Firewall | software that blocks your computer information from an outside source |
| Dumpster Diving | going into a trash can for documents that can be used for identity theft |
| Peer-2-Peer | an application that runs on a personal computer and shares files with other users across the internet |
| Misdemeanor | a crime punishable by a fine and/or county jail time (i.e. traffic ticket, sometimes given to first offenders) |
| Felony | a crime sufficiently serious to be punishable by death or a long term in prison (i.e. violent crime, high damage identity theft crime) |
| Phishing | a scam that tries to trick you into giving our your SSN and other personal information |
| Credit Report | a kind of report card about your credit history |
| Credit Reporting Agencies | Companies that keep large databases about your credit history (Experian, Equifax, Transunion) |
| Collection Agencies | businesses or attorneys whose job is to collect money owed by “you” to another business. You have rights under the Fair Debt Collection and Practices Act about how they can act. |
