You have probably heard of catfishing or gotten catfished yourself. For those who may be hearing this for the first time, catfishing is deliberately stealing another person's identity to lure a victim.

Catfishers could have several motives. Some do it for financial gain by masquerading as a business person or for romantic relationships.

Identity theft could also be someone pretending to be you to commit fraud in your identity.

The proliferation of technology has only made identity theft worse. It is commonplace to find so many accounts of one individual some fake and some real. Social media platforms have made an effort to verify accounts for public figures. But even so, the problem is far from solved.

Digital identity theft includes using another person's unique identifiers and passing them as your own for fraudster motives.

This is how Identity theft works:

•An identity theft culprit  will collect all public information about you

•They might use available data to access your accounts

•They reach out to you pretending to e institutions or prospective business partners or prospective job opportunities to fetch more information about you.

•They may try to hack your bank accounts by guessing passcodes and pins.

Protect Your Identity In The Following Ways

•Protect your passwords and gadget such as phones and laptops

•Do not share private information such as date of birth, social security number, driver's license number, ID number, bank account number, etc.

•Enable two-factor authentication settings in your mail and social sites.

How does Identity Theft happen?

•Phishing-Never open suspicious emails and links. Identity hackers use this to install malware that mines information from your gadget while sending it to a central computer.

• Skimming criminals may use counterfeit card readers while you are swiping with your debit/credit card. Another technique is using small cameras to collect pins and card details.

•Wi-fi Hacking-Avoid public wifi by all means possible. This is more especially if you are doing bank transactions or filing returns. Some criminals use unencrypted wifi to snoop on your transactions and finally gain access to your data.

•Phone calls-this are very common in Kenya. A conman will call pretending to be a bank agent or service provider. Instead of giving personal details over the phone, opt to visit the bank branch yourself.