Pretexting: Your Personal Information Revealed

In this way, the pretexter may be able to obtain personal information about you such as your SSN, bank 

and credit card account numbers, information in 

your credit report, and the existence and size 

of your savings and investment portfolios.

Keep in mind that some information about you may be a 

matter of public record, such as 

whether you own a home, pay 

your real estate taxes, or have 

ever filed for bankruptcy. It 

is not pretexting for another 

person to collect this kind of information.

There Ought to Be a 

Law — There Is

Under federal law — the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act 

— it’s illegal for anyone to:

 use false, fictitious or fraudulent statements or 

documents to get customer information from a 

financial institution or directly from a customer 

of a financial institution.

 use forged, counterfeit, lost, or stolen documents 

to get customer information from a financial institution or directly from a customer of a financial institution.

February 2006

When you think of your own personal assets, 

chances are your home, 

car, and savings and investments 

come to mind. But what about 

your Social Security number 

(SSN), telephone records and 

your bank and credit card 

account numbers? To people 

known as “pretexters,” that information is a personal asset, too.

Pretexting is the practice of 

getting your personal information under 

false pretenses. Pretexters sell your information to 

people who may use it to get credit in your name, 

steal your assets, or to investigate or sue you. 

Pretexting is against the law.

How Pretexting Works

Pretexters use a variety of tactics to get your personal 

information. For example, a pretexter may call, claim 

he’s from a survey firm, and ask you a few questions. 

When the pretexter has the information he wants, he 

uses it to call your financial institution. He pretends 

to be you or someone with authorized access to 

your account. He might claim that he’s forgotten his 

checkbook and needs information about his account. 

FTC Facts

For Consumers Federal Trade Commission

For The Consumer

www.ftc.gov 1-877-ftc-help
 ask another person to get someone else’s customer information using false, fictitious or 

fraudulent statements or using false, fictitious 

or fraudulent documents or forged, counterfeit, 

lost, or stolen documents.

The Federal Trade Commission Act also generally 

prohibits pretexting for sensitive consumer information.

The Link to Identity 

Theft

Pretexting can lead to identity theft. Identity theft 

occurs when someone hijacks your personal identifying information to open 

new charge accounts, order 

merchandise, or borrow 

money. Consumers targeted 

by identity thieves often 

don’t know they’ve been 

victimized until the hijackers fail to pay the bills or repay the loans, and collection agencies begin dunning the consumers for payment of accounts they didn’t even know they had.

According to the Federal Trade Commission 

(FTC), the most common forms of identity theft 

are:

Credit Card Fraud — a credit card account is 

opened in a consumer’s name or an existing 

credit card account is “taken over”;

 Communications Services Fraud — the identity 

thief opens telephone, cellular, or other utility 

service in the consumer’s name; 

 Bank Fraud — a checking or savings account is 

opened in the consumer’s name, and/or fraudulent checks are written; and 

Fraudulent Loans — the identity thief gets a 

loan, such as a car loan, in the consumer’s name.

The Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence 

Act makes it a federal crime when someone: “knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful authority, a 

means of identification of another person with the 

intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful 

activity that constitutes a violation of federal law, or 

that constitutes a felony under any applicable state 

or local law.”

Under the Identity Theft Act, a name or SSN is 

considered a “means of identification.” So is a credit 

card number, cellular 

telephone electronic serial number or any other 

piece of information that 

may be used alone or in 

conjunction with other 

information to identify a 

specific individual. 

Protect Yourself

Even though the laws are on your side, it’s wise to 

take an active role in protecting your information.

 Don’t give out personal information on the 

phone, through the mail or over the Internet 

unless you’ve initiated the contact or know who 

you’re dealing with. Pretexters may pose as representatives of survey firms, banks, Internet service 

providers and even government agencies to get 

you to reveal your SSN, mother’s maiden name, 

financial account numbers and other identifying information. Legitimate organizations with 

which you do business have the information 

they need and will not ask you for it.

Pretexting can lead to 

identity theft.

2 FTC Facts For Consumers
 Be informed. Ask your financial institutions for 

their policies about sharing your information. 

Ask them specifically about their policies to prevent pretexting.

 Pay attention to your statement cycles. Follow 

up with your financial institutions if your statements don’t arrive on time.

 Review your statements carefully and promptly. 

Report any discrepancies to your institution immediately.

 Alert family members to the dangers of pretexting. Explain that only you, or someone you authorize, should provide 

personal information 

to others.

 Keep items with 

personal information 

in a safe place. Tear or 

shred your charge receipts, copies of credit 

applications, insurance 

forms, bank checks 

and other financial 

statements that you’re 

discarding, expired charge cards and credit offers 

you get in the mail. 

 Add passwords to your credit card, bank and 

phone accounts. Avoid using easily available 

information like your mother’s maiden name, 

your birth date, the last four digits of your SSN 

or your phone number, or a series of consecutive 

numbers. 

 Be mindful about where you leave personal 

information in your home, especially if you have 

roommates or are having work done in your 

home by others. 

 Find out who has access to your personal information at work and verify that the records are 

kept in a secure location. 

 Order a copy of your credit report from the 

three nationwide consumer reporting companies 

every year. An amendment to the federal Fair 

Credit Reporting Act requires each of the major 

nationwide consumer reporting companies to 

provide you with a free copy of your credit reports, at your request, once every 12 months. To 

order your free annual report from one or all of 

the nationwide consumer reporting companies, 

visit www.annualcreditreport.com, call toll-free 

1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit 

Report Request Form and 

mail it to: Annual Credit 

Report Request Service, 

P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. 

You can print the order 

form from ftc.gov/credit. 

Do not contact the three 

nationwide consumer 

reporting companies individually. They provide free annual credit reports only through 

www.annualcreditreport.com, 1-877-322-8228, 

and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. 

Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. 

Your credit report contains information on 

where you work and live, the credit accounts that 

have been opened in your name, how you pay your 

bills and whether you’ve been sued, arrested or have 

filed for bankruptcy. Checking your report annually 

can help you catch mistakes and fraud before they 

wreak havoc on your personal finances.

Checking your report 

annually can help you catch 

mistakes and fraud before 

they wreak havoc on your 

personal finances.

FTC Facts For Consumers 3
If You Think You’re a 

Victim

If you think you’ve been a victim of pretexting, the 

FTC recommends that you: 

1. Report it to your financial institution immediately. Close accounts that have been tampered 

with and open new ones with new Personal 

Identification Numbers (PINs) and passwords. 

2. Contact the fraud departments at one of the 

three major credit reporting companies immediately. Tell them to flag your file with a fraud 

alert including a statement that creditors should 

get your permission before opening any new accounts in your name. The company you contact 

will transmit your request to the other two.

 Equifax: call: 1-800-525-6285 and write: 

P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241 

 Experian: call: 1-888-EXPERIAN (1-888-

397-3742) and write: P.O. Box 949, Allen, 

TX 75013-0949 

 Trans Union: call: 1-800-680-7289 and 

write: Fraud Victim Assistance Division, 

P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92634

3. Contact your local police as soon as possible, 

and ask to file a report. Even if the police can’t 

catch the pretexter, having a police report can 

help you in clearing up your credit records later 

on.

4. Contact the Federal Trade Commission as 

soon as possible. The FTC works for the 

consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and 

unfair business practices in the marketplace and 

to provide information to help consumers spot, 

stop and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to 

get free information on any of 150 consumer 

topics, call toll-free, 1-877-ID-THEFT 

(1-877-438-4338), or use the complaint form at 

www.ftc.gov/idtheft. The FTC enters Internet, 

telemarketing, identity theft and other fraudrelated complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a 

secure, online database available to hundreds of 

civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in 

the U.S. and abroad.

If you’ve been a victim of identity theft, file a 

complaint with the FTC by contacting the FTC’s 

Identity Theft Hotline by telephone: toll-free 

1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); TDD: 

202-326-2502; by mail: Identity Theft Clearinghouse, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania 

Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580; or online: 

www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

The FTC has published a free booklet, Take 

Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft. This 

comprehensive guide includes information on what 

consumers can do to reduce their risk of ID theft; 

how consumers can protect their personal information; the steps consumers can take if they do become 

victims of ID theft; and a directory of government 

resources available to ID theft victims. For your 

copy, visit www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

4 FTC Facts For Consumers

For The Consumer Federal Trade Commission

www.ftc.gov 1-877-ftc-help

Federal Trade Commission

Bureau of Consumer Protection