The Different Types Of Identity Aft: Identity Theft

Identity Theft There are many different types of white collar crime this day in age, but few white collar crimes are as damaging as identity theft. To begin identity theft as defined by Michael Flax (2005) is when someone else obtains and uses your personally identifying information without consent or knowledge to obtain credit cards, wireless phones, loans or mortgages, get a job, or otherwise commit fraudulent or criminal acts in your name, leaving you responsible for the consequences. According to Michael Flax (2005) identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States in 2005 costing victims annually over $5 billion dollars. The topic of identity theft is not small so I will be breaking it down into three major sections.

It comes in many different shapes and sizes when it rears its ugly head. In this section I will explain what identity theft is, and then different ways the thief uses the

They then take this information and can create their own cards to use. Since most cards now have the magnetic strip this is a very effective way for the thieves to steal someone’s information.

Insider Theft

When insider theft occurs it is because either someone in the organization is stealing and selling peoples personal information, or they are stealing the personal information to use themselves. This is usually due to a lack of strict internal controls that keep people from having access to too many peoples personal information (Hedayati, 2012).

Phishing

Phishing is when someone attempts to acquire pertinent information by pretending to be a trustworthy third party. Many times the thieves use emails, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and other social media outlets to steal or gather personal information (Hedayati, 2012). Additionally, sometimes these messages will contain the actual emblems and colors of a business or company that they are pretending to be. When this happens it is called Spoofing (Hedayati,