Computer Fraud And Identity Theft

Identity theft is the stealing and use of someone’s personal information and is one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation (Dole, 2005). According to Federal Trade Commission estimates, identity thieves victimize approximately 10 million Americans every year at a cost of an astonishing $50 billion (2005). Identity theft has been going on for years now and is easily done with the help of today’s technology. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there are six common ways that identity thieves get a hold of personal information. The varieties of methods that are used are dumpster diving, skimming, phishing, changing the victim’s address, stealing, and pretexting (Federal Trade Commission). Once someone’s identity is stolen,

According to the Federal Trade Commission Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States of America. They estimated that 10 million people a year are victimized by the crime which comes out to about 19 people per minute are becoming victims of this crime. Given these extremely worrying statistics it has never been more important to be informed about the crime of identity theft and how to avoid it in your daily life especially as more schemes and ways to unknowingly forfeit your information are introduced with the prevalence of the World Wide Web (www, w3). More than just knowledge of the crime of identity theft it is also important to know what protections you can set to help protect your information. Also, given the amount of businesses and organizations, and the various vulnerabilities that their systems may have, that must have access and know significant information about your life it is also invaluable to understand how to recover from your information being lost. This paper will be used to inform about this growing crime including what identity theft is and the different types that exist, what information is most important to protect, what you can do to avoid it, how to recover from it and what that may entail, and how this applies to the field of computer science and what should be looked for when building systems, and different kinds of attacks that can happen.

Figuring out if an identity is stolen is not easy only because it can be unknown until damage is dealt. This is why identity theft isn’t easy to stop. When most people report a crime, police arrive on the scene before serious damage is dealt, but when a thief steals a person’s identity, the victim can be unaware for quite some time before they realize the amount of money they lost. According to Tracey Whittaker and Anne Dilascio, in 2003, the average money lost from identity theft per person was $4,789, but in 2006 the average was less than $2000. The average out-of-pocket cost of identity theft victims in 2005 was

In recent years, the world has seen significant changes in technology. With new technology come new challenges. One of those new challenges is identity theft. Identity theft can happen through the internet, ATM, emails, or even a phone. Identity theft can happen when any person(s) takes an individual’s information, such as their Social Security number, or even banking information for financial gain. “Close to 100 million Americans have their personal information placed at risk of theft each year when records in databases are lost, stolen or accessed by unauthorized individuals” (Information systems and technology, n.d.). Identity theft not only costs the person, whose

It’s no secret, the internet sensation has made many people redundant, however, over the past decade this global phenomenon has seen the birth of over 1.2 million jobs, dawning a new era for humanity. With rapid developments occurring in the design, development and implementation of technological discoveries. Traditional legal principles and processes are constantly challenged by the need to keep pace with new technologies. in particular, identity theft has skyrocketed since the rise of the internet; a 2012 survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed 7% of respondents were directly affected by identity crime in the preceding six months. Identity theft not only affects Australian citizens it’s also a cancer to national security, in order for the government to beat this epidemic it’s imperative that harsher punishments are imposed on cyber criminals.

Just in the last decade, there has been a 29% increase in crimes committed against residents and a 22% increase for business losses due to online crimes (Meyer). Another large issue with technology is that they monitor an individualś every move, for example, a phone company, AT&T, was monitoring their customers phones to be able to “use your individual Web browsing information, like the search terms you enter and the Web pages you visit, to tailor ads and offers to your interests” (Silverman 282). Although the increase in such crimes can potentially cause many issues and obstacles for an individual, they do not physically harm anyone. Such crimes as internet fraud and any other crime that can be committed online, are all fixable and can be prevented. There are security systems that can help protect against frauds and prevent any more from occurring, which makes this issue much less crucial to stop. It is also possible to contact police and bankers to stop this from occurring and they can help you regain all of your losses. The government also has the NSA, the National Security Agency, to monitor all internet movements, which helps stop many of these issues. New technology has helped prevent an immense amount of street crimes, that without the internet, would have only continued to rise, while millions of people would have continued to be murdered.

In recent years, the Internet has become an appealing place for criminals to obtain identifying data, such as passwords or even banking information (Borrus). In their haste to explore the exciting features of the Internet, many people respond to "spam" ¬ unsolicited E-mail ¬ that promises them some benefit but requests identifying data, without realizing that in many cases, the requester has no intention of keeping his promise. In some cases, criminals reportedly have used computer technology to obtain large amounts of personal data. With enough identifying information about an individual, a criminal can take over that individual's identity to conduct a wide range of crimes: for example, false applications for loans and credit cards, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, fraudulent use of telephone calling cards, or obtaining other goods or privileges which the criminal might be denied if he were to use his real

Identity theft is one of the growing crimes in the United States due to the fact people do not know how to properly protect themselves against it. Criminals use different methods to acquire the information necessary to steal someone’s identity. Some of the techniques used to commit identity theft are; stealing wallets, acquiring bank information or pilfering through trash to find documents containing PII (FBI, n.d.). Nowadays criminals are able to steal people’s identity using different procedures over the internet without having to compromise their identity. Some of the methods are social engineering, phishing, sending spam messages and malware (OLI, 2013). Criminals use these methods because with the use of technology, identity theft could be accomplished anonymously and without much effort. Also because people lower their guard about securing their personally identifiable information when using the internet, especially when using social networks, they become easy targets to

Identity theft portrays criminal acts through which the culprit deceitfully acquires and utilizes someone else's character. These unlawful act can be done by communication technology and utilizing data. Identity Theft done on the internet are to a vast degree based of profoundly complex tricks and it demonstrates the troubles that law enforcement organizations are confronted with when exploring such offenses. The techniques habitually utilized by guilty parties to get personal related information are different. Physical methods allude to storage devices in a computer with data containing personal information about an individual's identity. As indicated by a survey, it was highlighted the fact that there were more PC related offenses as to the burglary of confidential

In today’s digital world, most Americans leave long electronic trails of private information wherever they go. But too often, that data is compromised. When they shop—whether online or at brick and mortar stores—retailers gain access to their credit card numbers. Medical institutions maintain patient records, which are increasingly electronic. Corporations store copious customer lists and employee Social Security numbers. These types of data frequently get loose. Hackers gain entry to improperly protected networks, thieves steal employee laptops or disgruntled workers pilfer company information.

Identity theft is at an all time high in America. In fact, in 2012 alone victims throughout America suffered approximately $24.7 billion in both direct and in-direct losses (DiGangi, 2013). That amount of loss nearly doubled what was accumulated in other types of theft such as burglary, property theft, and auto theft. These cases of identity theft and data breaches have became so common today that most do not even pay close attention when a new case is mentioned. However, the effort to eliminate the threat before it occurs is ever important when dealing with a phantom like enemy.

Over the past few years the internet has become a tempting place for criminals to acquire identifying information, such as passwords and banking data. In criminal’s haste to explore the exciting features of the internet, many people respond to “spam” unsolicited emails that promise them benefits, but request identifying information, without recognizing that in many situations, the requester has no intention of keeping their promise. In some situations, criminals reportedly have exploited computer technology to acquire large amounts of personal information. With enough identifying data about an individual, a criminal can take over that individual’s identity to conduct a wide range of crimes: for example, false applications for loans, credit cards, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, acquiring other goods, or privileges which the criminal might deny if they were to use their real name. If the criminal takes steps to ensure that bills for the falsely acquired credit cards, or bank statements showing the unauthorized withdrawals are sent to another address other than the victims, the victim may not become aware of what’s happening until the criminal has already inflicted substantial damage on the victim’s assets, credit and reputation (Identity Theft).

Technology has really changed the ways of paying, we can easily buy something online by clicking one bottom of our smartphone, or purchasing a car by swiping our credit card. In another word, modern day financial and identical information are just bunch numbers and letters stored in the digital world. Unlike our unique appearances or finger prints, the numerical information such as our password, credit card numbers and social security numbers can be used for financial gain by some criminals, the identity theft. The United States Department of Justice defines Identity theft as “all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception,

On March 13th, while browsing the 25th most popular website in the world, reddit.com, I received a personal message from another user of the site. The message was simple: “hi.” Not recognizing the username, gurbadurab, I decided to ignore it; they had other plans. After roughly an hour, I received another message from the same user, this time it was a little more personal. “how are you? [sic]” the stranger asked me.

Only within the past few years have there even been reliable estimates of the incidence of identity theft. “The first thorough survey of the extent of identity theft was conducted for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2003. A similar survey, involving interviews with slightly more than 4,900 randomly selected individuals, was conducted for the commission between March and June 2006” (Anderson, Durbin, & Salinger. ID Theft). Victims of identity theft are commonplace and the resulting monetary losses have been impressive. However, this attention to identity theft is a fairly new phenomenon. With its immense growth, attention and precedence, cyber-criminals are able to infiltrate and depreciate the integral infrastructure of our society which creates a cultural lapse through the declination of economic and cultural growth and double jeopardize an already unstable system to the brink of its destruction. Research has suggested that victims of identity theft spend an average of $1,500 in out-of-pocket expenses and an average of 175 hours per incident of identity theft in order to resolve the many problems caused by identity