Identity theft
The first form of credit card hijacking is basically identity theft, which is the deliberate use of another person's identity. Identity theft is usually the result of serious breaches of privacy and often involves the victim compromising a great deal of financial and personal information allowing the thief to charge an existing credit card account or open up new credit card accounts in the name of the victim. Methods of identity theft for credit card hijacking have involved mail interception or skimming of credit card data. The growth of online subscriptions and transactions have also brought along a variety of different phishing and the use of spyware and botnets.