Identity Aft : The Causes And Effects Of Financial Identity Theft

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.

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.

In 2014, there were an estimated 2.3 million cases, a twenty-two percent increase from the previous year (Andrews, 2016). According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft complaints have also increased by more than 47 percent since 2014 and it was the second most reported crime after illegal debt collection. (“FTC Releases Annual Summary of Consumer Complaints Debt Collection, Identity Theft, and Imposter Scams Remain Top Categories of Complaints Received by FTC in 2015”, 2016) “The 2017 Identity Fraud Study, released by Javelin Strategy & Research, found that $16 billion was stolen from 15.4 million U.S. consumers in 2016, compared with $15.3 billion and 13.1 million victims in 2015. In the past six years identity thieves have stolen over $107 billion.” (“Identity Theft and Cybercrime”,

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 is an issue faced on a daily basis for those that are living in our wonderful state of California. For some it is common knowledge to protect your identity but for those that are not familiar with the practices of these common crooks, will cost a lifetime of savings and irreparable damage to ones credit and finances. According to the California Office of Privacy Protection, “there were more than 11 million victims of Identity Theft in the

Identity theft is a significant problem to both citizens and financial institutions. The FTC estimates that over 27.3 million Americans have been the victims of identity theft in the past five years. The

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation” (Oscar Wilde). This quote illustrates how in our world, a person’s identity can be easily changed. Many Americans are effected by this problem today. Citizens, criminals, and the government all play a role in this process. However, many disagree as to whether identity theft should be allowed in our country. Based on the history of identity theft and relationships between American citizens, the government, and this issue, identity theft should be abolished in America.

In the article, “Someone Had Taken Over My Life” by Laura Shin, Amy Krebs describes what it feels like to become a victim of identity theft. She got a call one day unexpectedly from a major credit card company’s fraud department. They said someone had tried to access a credit card using Amy’s name, address and Social Security number. She thought someone had stolen her credit card and had maybe gone out to eat or purchased some items, but she was wrong. This was a bigger and more serious problem than Amy has ever imagined. It involved going to many court cases, and took at least a year to solve. Amy advises to be cautious with your information going forward, because even if you do all the right things and shred things, and ask all the right

By the 1960’s, nearly all of identity theft used the latest technology, the telephone, and the crime had morphed into the financial scheme we have become familiar with. Today. Thieves would call victims with promises of cash prizes and lucrative rewards, distributed once they provided key pieces of information to verify his or her identity. Currently phone scams account for less the 10 % of identity theft schemes.

Identity theft/fraud is becoming a major threat to the Australian community as technology advances. This section of crime produces substantial profits for offenders and causes considerable financial and emotions harm to the victims (Australian federal police, 2014). With this increasing alarm around identity theft/fraud in Australia, there has to be strong legal actions available to counteract the issue. Identity theft/fraud can be defined as a crime of obtaining the personal or financial information of another person for the sole purpose of assuming that person’s name or identity in order to gain benefit (investopedia, 2014). This essay will extensively discuss the current laws/legislations implemented for identity theft/fraud, the key stakeholders involved in the issue and an overview around the effectiveness of the current laws/legislations. After thoroughly analysing the current legislations used to counteract the threat of identity theft/fraud, it will be clear which aspects of the legislations are working efficiently and which aspects are proving inefficient for the Australian government.

Identity theft is the fastest growing fraud crime in America (Finklea, 2009). Gaining knowledge in preventing theft will better the economy and lower the crime rates in America. There are reported 9.9 million victims of identity theft and this number is increasing rapidly as the years go on. It has been reported that an estimate of fifty billion dollars has been charged to our consumers every year due to identity theft (Finklea, 2009).

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.”

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.

“Identity theft: the fraudulent practice of using another person's name and personal information to obtain credit, loans, etc.” In 2014, there were around 95,000 reports of identity theft in the UK alone. However, that enormous figure rose even further in 2015 to a spine-chilling 148,000 - causing identity theft to rise by 58% in one year alone. Someone new becomes a target every day. Every day, someone loses their individuality. Every day, someone gains an online twin. These so-called