Identity Theft Crimes
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), almost 18 million Americans were victims of identity theft crimes in 2014. In fact, the most common kind of identity theft during this year was the attempted unauthorized use of existing financial accounts. Identity theft crimes are very serious, but there are actually different ways that criminals attempt to misrepresent their victims. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/vit14pr.cfm
Employment
This crime is usually committed by individuals who lack social security numbers or criminals trying to hide their felony infractions. Anyone who officially works for a business must fill out an I-9 and W-4 form to receive their salary and pay taxes. Social security numbers must
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The criminal with a fake driver’s license can then avoid any and all traffic fines related to things like speeding or drunk driving. For example, when the criminal is pulled over by the police, they will willingly share their fake identify and then simply discard the ID. They will not show up for court, so the police will be looking for the victim. Because the victim's driving record includes these driving infractions, their insurance rates may rise or they may be denied new car insurance. In the worst case scenario, they may temporarily have their license revoked or suspended until they can prove their …show more content…
A criminal may take out a loan, purchase a vehicle or even obtain a credit card in their victim’s name accumulate debts. Sophisticated career criminals may even establish a full identity or apply for a mortgage in the victim’s name. Credit card fraud is the most common identity theft crime because it is relatively easy to apply for financial services online. Once obtained, the criminal can simply purchase items online without ever having their ID checked by a cashier. Because these crimes are so common, the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, make it relatively easy to file complaints and correct credit
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
Being a victim of identity theft myself, I know the struggles of dealing with this topic. The credit card companies are at fault because of their lack of security when it comes to credit card usage and existing information. Credit card fraud is the easiest to commit and the most common. The Bureau of Justice did a study in 2007 with 7.9 billion people surveyed on how many households with at least one member of the household has been a victim of identity theft. The statistics showed that existing credit card theft increased from 2005 to 2007 by 31% and with 6.6% of people, being
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”,
Student Answer: There are several methods to a crook use to steal your identity. Some crooks are using credit cards and drivers licenses with identities lifted from a stolen or forged passports a crook can be one that is pilfering your credit card number and charging merchandise to your
Two years ago, Bob had just bought a new house. After he and his family were settled in, they started cleaning up the place and throwing away “unneeded” documents. Three months later, when Bob was applying for a car loan, he found that his credit history had been destroyed. He was a victim of identity theft, a crime that often causes people debt, unjustified imprisonment, and murder, being one of the most dangerous, yet easiest, crimes to commit. Identity theft includes other types of fraud and identity related crimes.
White collar crime is defined as “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (para. 1). Many of these white collar crimes are committed by executives of large companies. However, some of these white collar crimes can be committed by everyday people, which can be unexpected. Identity theft is one of those white collar crimes that can be committed by an everyday person. Identity theft is obtaining the identity of another and uses that identity to commit fraud. Many times the identity theft can result in loss of money or even lines of credit run on the social security number of someone else. Imagine someone stealing your debit card number, and all of the sudden your card is declined and your bank
Identity thieves send out letters, emails and SMS’s hoping to ‘phish’ information from you pretending to act on the behalf of a bank or other institution by creating spoof websites. The scammers also install programs onto your computer or other devices through software downloads such as apps which then track online activity of people and report the keystrokes used when on banking or online shopping websites where credit card information is entered. The perpetrators of these crimes also monitor social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and also job search sites to gather any personal details they can use to open financial services in your name, run up debt and apply for other various
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
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
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.
Buying private details from "inside" resources. For example, an identification thief may pay a store employee for details about you that appears on an application for goods, services or credit score.
There is currently a huge growing number of criminals that now do greater and more widespread damage to their victims without ever meeting them. Identity theft surfaced in the early 1990s and turned peoples everyday transactions into a data gathering game. Bits of personal information such as bankcards, credit card accounts, income, social security numbers or just someone name, address, and phone numbers are now collected and could be used illegally by these individuals without anyone’s knowledge.
Identity theft is on the rise in the United States and Globally. The Federal Trade Commission advised that there are about nine million cases of identity theft. People who had their identity stolen often feel like they were violated. Any individual can have their identity compromised in numerous ways. Different institutions store personal information. There are several organizations that have social security numbers, bank account numbers, and credit card numbers. Colleges and Universities have people personal information stored in their databases that could be hacked. There are several companies that offer options to people to protect their identity. Most credit card companies offer the option of identity
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).
“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