Explain How Thieves Take Personal Information To Create Id's

Identity theft is a major concern today in our country, millions of a person’s identity have been compromised for many of years. Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person’s personal information such as name, Social Security number, driver’s license number, credit card number, or other identifying information to take on that person’s identity in order to commit fraud or other crimes. Stealing an identity is, unfortunately, surprisingly easy to do and happens when you least expect it. Just by opening your mail, something that has personal information on it, throwing it in the trash. Therefore, a person can go through your trash and take all that information and use it against you to take on a new identity.

Identify theft, in general, can affect a person for a lifetime. Federal law defines medical identity theft as “A fraud committed or attempted using the identifying information of another person without authority to obtain medical services or goods, or when someone uses the person’s identity to obtain money by falsifying claims for medical services and falsifying medical records to support those claims.” (“Red Flag Rule - Identity Theft Prevention Policy”, 2009). However, medical identity theft is not as easily traced compared to something such as, credit card theft. With the crime being less traceable and the ever-expanding health care system, it is not surprising that medical identity theft is continually rising. Medical identity theft accounts

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

1. Case Study:  “Don’t Let Crooks Steal Your Identity: How to Protect Yourself-and Your Credit Rating” (p. 225)

Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act is a federal law established in 1998 that protects people from identity theft. Prior to this date there were not any specific laws to address this issue. The definition on the Federal Trade Commission’s website reads. “knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law;”

Identity theft can be divided into several categories and, unfortunately, this fast growing crime already reached our medical records. This kind of identity theft, classified as medical identity theft, can easily be done because there are also several persons, whether authorized or unauthorized, who can access our medical records that contains necessary and confidential information. These people can be anyone, from physicians to other medical personnel or even some other persons who really want your medical identity.

Imagine the feeling of your life being turned upside down in the event of an unauthorized individual utilizes your personal information to seek healthcare benefits. This harmful event can cause a variety of different risks for the individual, healthcare organization, and third party payer. Therefore, I personally feel that medical identity theft is an act of robbing personal information that causes greater consequences mainly to the well-being of an individual. With this in mind, it is described as a criminal behavior that needs to be taken seriously because it can jeopardize the overall safety of patient care and negatively impact the individual’s personal life. Unfortunately, these harmful acts are happening every single day and most people don’t even realize it. With that being said, I am going to discuss an individual’s personal experience of medical identity

The risk of medical identity theft is a growing concern within the US and with more medical records becoming digitized medical theft will continue increasing unless the medical community will make more of an effort to protect the privateness and security measures of our records. Medical theft is relatively unknown to the general public, but it can be the most dangerous form of larceny of all because it not only, can affect your finances it could affect your health. (Weisman,2014 pg.

Having identity theft go on does not necessarily mean it is coming from the outside, but from the inside. Katrina Candrick was employed at MedAssets, a healthcare billing company, working as a patient account representative when she decided to steal personal information from more than 1,200 accounts she handled. The patients’ information she stole was from the University of Texas Medical Branch. Katina had already stolen an identity when she was arrested and used the information to her advantages living the dream of new vehicles and paying her living expenses. She had pleaded guilty to the charges brought against her, conspiracy to commit identity theft and unlawful possession of fraudulent identification documents. She was sentenced to 15

The definition of Identity theft is when someone “knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with intent to commit, or to aid and abet, or in connection with, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law” (Finklea, 2009, p. 2).The use of social security numbers has taken identity theft to the extreme. It was originally used as a tax identifiable number. Now it is being used for job applications, bank accounts, Medicare, and welfare approvals. With the social security number on several different applications, this is opening the door for numerous identity theft opportunities.

By definition “Identity theft n. the dishonest acquisition of personal information in order to perpetrate fraud, typically by obtaining credit, loans, etc., in someone else's name; fraud perpetrated in this way. ” (dictionary.oed.com, 2007). It’s estimated that 9 million Americans have had their identities stolen each year. “According to the Secret Service, its investigations show a jump in potential losses due to identity theft, from $851 million in 1998 to $1.4 billion in 2000.” add citation from how stuff works There are many ways that thieve steal your identity, they may go through your trash, steal your wallet or purse. I will discuss a lot of the different ways in more

The less sophisticated thieves have perfected the art of “dumpster-driving” rummaging through trash. Abusing employer’s authorized access to credit reports or some even playing ‘landlord’ has given them unauthorized access to victim’s reports. Some victims have been scammed fro information by an identity thief posing as a legitimate businessperson or government official. In the most recent news from Concord, NC (Aug. 19, 2004), the police have uncovered a more sophisticated case of ID theft. The newspapers stated, “Authorities think a portable credit card reader, or skimmer, was used to read personal information off a credit card’s magnetic strip. Then those details were applied to the strip on the back of a different cared.”

As one can see, stealing someone?s identity is a very easy thing and can also be done in a number of different ways.

Identity theft continues to be a problem in the United States, yet research on identity thieves is limited. Both the theoretical and empirical literature on identity theft is in their infancy. As a result, not surprisingly, not much is known about this crime and its victims.

The United States Department of Justice defines Identity Theft and Fraud as, “… terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2012). An individual’s personal data such as: Social Security number, bank account information, credit card numbers, or telephone calling card number¬ may be used by criminals to personally profit at your expense. In many cases, a victim's loss not only includes out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial costs and time repairing and correcting credit histories and erroneous information. To assist with my research for this paper, I chose two books written from different perspectives. First, I sought out a book to provide a comprehensive review of identity theft history; methods used to steal identities, consequences of having your identity stolen, and prevention techniques from an individual or business perspective. Next, after developing a strong baseline on identity theft, I searched for a reference book which offers a comprehensive review of the concepts of computer crimes, relevant laws, and methods practiced by investigators to trace, capture and persecute identity theft