Identity Theft

The problem most Americans face in today’s society is stolen identity. Stolen identity can ruin the life of every citizen in the United States and foreign countries. According to Ballard, a journalist, who recognizes the Federal Trade Commission for capturing identity theft as the number one rank of consumer complaints (21). Out of ten million people, there will be one person who has been a victim of stolen identity. At birth, a child is given a social security number to distinguish them from other babies. In reality, the social security number is the main target for identity theft. Throughout each country, a person’s credit is damaged due to stolen identity. Americans must protect their personal information from the world because an identity thief is waiting at the doorstep to be welcomed in. If we are going to eliminate the problem, we should do credit checks annually, destroy important documents, and store passwords to accounts in a safe place.

One possible solution to prevent identity theft involves performing a credit checks annually. Performing a credit check annually through the credit bureaus will save a person’s identity. According to Dr. Sovern, a professor of law at St.John’s University states that “consumers should have a claim against creditors and credit bureaus for including the transactions of identity thieves in reports on impersonated consumers (233).” That would give the credit industry—the entity that can avoid the losses at the lowest cost—and incentive to take steps to prevent identity theft. There are three credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and Trans Union (Ballard 21). Individuals with established credit should take the following three credit bureaus into consideration because bad credit does not look good...

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...re are watching to see who will be their next suspect. Identity theft can be prevented, but human beings have to take action by protecting what is theirs, their credit.

Works Cited

Ballard, Scotty. “How To Prevent Identity Theft. Jet 103.13 (2003): 15. MasterFILE Premier EBSCO.Web.19 July 2011.

Romano, Andrew. “IDENTITY CRISIS. (Cover story).” Newsweek 146.1 (2005): 44-45. Vocational and Career Collection. EBSCO. Web. 19 July 2011.

“HOW TO AVOID BECOMING A VICTIM OF INDENTITY THEFT.” Ebony 58.6 (2003): 32. MasterFILE Premier.EBSCO.Web. 21 July 2011.

“How to Protect Yourself From Identity Thieves.” Consumers’ Research Magazine 86.2 (2003): 22. MasterFILE Premier.EBSCO.Web. 19 July 2011.

Sovern,Jeff. “Stopping Identity Theft.” Journal of Consumer Affairs 38.2 (2004): 233-243. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO.Web. 27 July 2011.