Identity Theft; a term becoming increasingly more common in the Tech World, Identity theft is the type of fraud where someone steals your personal information and uses that information to steal money, gain benefits, apply for a passport, take out loans or conduct business illegally in your name1. Identity theft is a key enabler of organised crime, and facilitates in retail fraud, financial crime, money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorism4.
Clearly, Identity theft is a very important topic to discuss, especially as it becomes more prevalent; The statistical odds of someone you know being directly impacted by Identity Theft is staggering. The Attorney General’s office has estimated figures upward of 5% of Australians (970,000 people)
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The identity thieves, often using ‘friend-bots’ try and weasel their way into different friend groups by sending mass invites, in doing so they obtain the information of every person who accepts from each friend group regardless of if they have their information set to Public or ‘Share with friends only”. Social engineering means that identity theft is particularly hard to stop happening once attackers have your information as offenders don’t let the victims know they have been hacked until it is already too late as seen in case study one. In this example, should the victim have been aware of the threat of identity theft online, they should have shared minimal to no information on birthdays (specifically year of birth), birthplace or emails as hackers can use small amounts of information to obtain greater amounts. A great rule of thumb is to never accept friend requests from people whom you have not met in real life, especially if their ‘profiles’ have little to no content such as profile pictures or statuses. Not only would this prevent potential attackers invading your friend group in the first place, but it will minimise damages should an attacker be able to see your profile if you don’t provide information which can be used as a back-alley into your
Identity theft is a term used for describing criminal that uses individual’s identity without consent. A common crime of identity theft would be identity fraud. Many of the crimes are regularly connected with money-related issues (Reyns, 2013). With technology being commonly used nowadays we are getting more dependent on it for business, financial, medical, and other forms. As a result this became a target for identity thieves as well. The Internet provides us information and accessibility, but information being stored on the Internet eas...
The crime of Identity theft, or identity fraud as it is more appropriately called, occurs when an imposter obtains pieces of personal information used to identify a person- such as a name, address, social security number, credit card information etc. - and uses it to his advantage. A criminal with this information can commit financial fraud, or
Identity theft is an increasing epidemic. Some of the ways a person can commit identity
I’ve decided to write my research paper on the issue of identity theft. Identity theft has occurred all throughout history in various ways and forms. Today, it is one of the fastest growing crimes occurring all over the world. Data suggests that identity theft accounts for roughly $50 billion stolen each year from citizens and businesses in the U.S. I believe that more attention should be targeted towards identity theft because of the detrimental effects it can have on a single victim and on our nation’s economy. Topics I will discuss include statistics about the crime, laws that protect the victims of the crimes, and what we are doing to prevent future attacks from happening.
Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in both the US and abroad. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that identity theft costs consumers as much as $50 billion annually and that this number will likely keep growing (Finklea, 2010, p. 1). Additionally, the FTC receives in excess 250,000 consumer complaints of identity theft each year and this is believed to be only a fraction of the total number of victims (Finklea, 2010, p. 9). There are several types and methods of identity theft and these methods continue to increase as technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. Understanding the types and methods of identity theft can reduce potential victimization.
The Internet plays the biggest role in identity theft. On the Internet, a thief can hide from detection while stealing peoples’ identities from their homes, being able to steal peoples’ information one by one “then disappearing into another identity,” (Vacca 60). Internet fraud consists of two phases. The first being spoofing where a fake site is set up made to look like the real thing. Once that is completed the second phase, phishing, begins. This usually starts with an email that uses the
In modern days, there is a type of crime that is growing very fast. It has become a very popular crime because it’s easily done, and it doesn’t leave a big trace, whether the crime is successful or not. The crime in question is Identity theft. Identity theft is a crime that involves a person or group pretending to be someone else for their own personal wants. The criminals use personal financial information such as social security number, bank and card information, your address and other personal information. According to the Insurance Information Institute, 15.4 million U.S. consumers have been victim to this crime, amounting to a loss of $16 billion, making it the most growing crime
Identity theft is a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of personal information, such as Social Security or driver 's license numbers, in order to impersonate someone else. It the fraudulent acquisition and use of a person 's private identifying information, usually for financial gain. One’s privacy would be intruded when his identity is been stolen. Identity theft is sometimes confused with other crimes that lead to identity theft. For example, when a thief copies your credit card information just to steal your money, that is not identity theft, it is a financial crime. A good example of identity theft is when someone steal or forge your identity card or social security card/number for the purpose of pretending to be you that and/or for financial purpose. Many people’s Facebook page have been hacked just because the hacker wants to pretend to be the real account owner. After succeeding in hacking into the Facebook page, the hacker can chat with the real account owner’s
Shoplifting is a crime that has been around for ages. It is also a crime that is on the rise. Many young people view shoplifting as harmless. They see it as a challenge or a game. It is not harmless nor is it a game. It affects the retailers and the consumers, as well as the person who commits the crime and their community. Some of the impacts of shoplifting include; merchants losing money, consumers paying higher prices, and shoplifters’ lives are changed-not always for the better. So who commits these thefts? Studies show that most shoplifters are or began in their teens. In fact, 86% of kids say that they know other kids who shoplift. Of those 86%, 66% say that they hang out with those kids. Other studies show that 47% of high school students have shoplifted within the last year. These acts are devasting in many ways. First, these individuals who shoplift do so not because of financial need, but because of peer and personal pressures and because they couldnt just wait a few days. Second, juvenile shoplifters that remain uncaught often get into more serious crimes. One of the main consequences of shoplifting is the merchants. Shoplifting affects both large and small businesses alike. It is estimated that the losses due to shoplifting exceed $40 billion in the United States alone. The U.S. National Crime Prevention Council says that almost a third of all businesses in the United States are forced to close because of theft. Another group that is hit hard by the effects of shoplifting is the consumers. Prices are raised to try to counteract the losses from shoplifting. This causes consumers to have to pay higher prices for everyday items. In some areas, consumers pay as much as $300 more a year due to price increases bec...
Sullivan, C. (2009). Is identity theft really theft? International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 23(1/2), 77-87. doi:10.1080/13600860902742596
Have you ever received a credit card bill at the end of the month with a ridiculous amount of money needed to be paid that you never spent? This is because of identity theft. The FTC estimates that each year, over 9 million people are affected by identity theft. According to Sally Driscoll, this is because almost anyone with a computer and a slight bit of computer knowledge can pull off identity theft. Experts also claim that identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the world. Identity theft is a global problem that cannot be stopped without effective measures. The problem is, effective measures are very hard to come by when dealing with identity theft because almost any security protocol can be by-passed.
Of course, the sender of the friend request is not at fault, because society struggles with “what is private vs. what is public”. The research done suggests that by looking at the natural views of how the social penetration theory society has evolved, two things result: (1) we have different concepts of public vs. private information and (2) there is a much more expedient process for developing relationships than is suggested by the social penetration theory (Pennington, 2008, p.6).... ... middle of paper ... ...:
III. Thesis Statement: Identity Theft is rapidly becoming a national issue because anyone of us could be a victim of identity theft. How we protect our self, keep our information private, identify any signs of identity theft, and report and repair our credit is up to each one of us. We have to be vigilant about our protecting ourselves from criminals.
Identity theft is a non ethical criminal offence. It is when someone gathers someone’s personal information and uses it against them. Fraudsters usually get a hold of personal information using three methods: information given away, offline methods and online methods. People commit this crime for many different reasons, but they all have one common goal of using some else’s identity to their advantage. There are many different type of identity thefts, which are categorized on what the criminal is using the identity for. Having said all of this, identity is a crime that can cause a lot of finical and reputation damage to the victim and that is why it is important to prevent it. Identity theft can be prevented if everybody knows exactly what it is and what they can do to keep their identity safe.
Lenard, Thomas I. “Identity Theft Is a Declining Problem.” Cyber Crime. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes.