...Identity Theft + Fraud= Identity Crime 20 December 2007 There is a thief that lurks around us everyday; this thief can attack in brad day light or in the darkest hour, and just about anywhere you may find yourself. This thief has the power to act in your name, make unlimited purchases, open up credit accounts and ruin your good name and credit all in the matter of seconds; if you are vulnerable enough, you might become his next victim. In many cases all he needs is your name and a social security number, and he has enough information to make you his next victim; if you don’t believe me then ask the millions of Americans that became victim’s, or just ask me. The thief that I am talking about is identity theft. Identity theft is a crime that is affecting many Americans, the costs are well in the millions every year, but with a little bit of knowledge and adaptive common practices, you can help fight back and minimize your chances of becoming the next victim of Identity theft. Identity theft is as predictable as a giant storm; you really don’t know what the damage will be until it passes and many victims don’t even see it coming until its already too late. So what is identity theft? According to the webpage article “about identity theft,” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (2007) writes that “identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal identifying information, like your name, SSN… without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes.” (para 1) All it takes...
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...Identity Theft: Fastest Growing Crime Tracy A. Baggett DeVry University Keller Graduate School of Management Identity Theft; Fastest Growing Crime Imagine waking up to news that you had accumulated hundreds of thousands in debt after someone used your identity for unauthorized purchases. This is exactly what happened to John Harrison, a Connecticut salesman. Jerry Phillips, the twenty year old who stole John Harrison’s identity went on a shopping spree that included purchases to Home Depot, JC Penny, Sears, Lowes and even bought two cars from Ford, a Kawasaki and a Harley. In just four months Jerry Phillips was able to accumulate $ 265,000 in purchases. Jerry Phillips was later arrested and imprisoned for three years. He even went as far as to apologize to John Harrison saying, “Sorry. You know, I wish I could make it up to you.” John Harrison felt that the nightmare was over with the criminal behind bars and even verbally acknowledging his regret over the crime. But despite all of this and a letter from the Justice Department confirming that John Harrison was a victim, he still found himself owing $140,000 to different creditors. How about waking up in the middle of the night realizing that federal agents just entered your home with guns pointed certainly qualifies as one of the most horrifying ordeals in anyone’s life. This is exactly what happened to Carlos Gomez, a UPS driver accused of being involved in a million dollar money laundering operation headed by a Wachovia...
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...Alec Dohm Economics Period 1 Identity Theft is a vast problem that grows with the years and the tough economic times. Identity theft affects nearly 5% of the world’s adult population. In 26 % of all cases, the fraud victim knew the person who stole their identity, and most often it is a family member who rips you off. The best way to protect yourself is to buy and use a paper shredder and a safe. Also the only organization you are legally required to give your Social Security Number is your employer and financial institutions, like a bank. The economic effect of identity theft is more than what people may think. Check fraud alone rose to 5.5 billion dollars in 2003. Because that money was taken from others instead of made legally, the economy shows a loss. The annual cost of identity theft to businesses is 53 billion dollars because if somebody gets the I.D of a business owner then they can funnel money out of that person’s business as well as their personal bank accounts. The American Bankers Association reported 677 million dollars of losses in 2003, which is a slight decline from 2001. Being that the article is a few years old, I would say that those numbers have gone way up since then. If somebody steals your identity, it could affect you in countless ways. All of a sudden your credit card will start being declined for insufficient funds. When you go home and check your bank account online, your money will have magically disappeared. A person could also...
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...that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, either alone or combined with other personal or identifying information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual (Personally Identifiable Information (PII), 2013). Some examples of PII would be names, social security numbers (full and truncated), driver’s license, identification cards, and medical records. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, 87% of the U.S. population can be uniquely identified using only gender, date of birth, and zip code (Stringer, 2011). This is a pretty scary though seeing that this is all information that can be obtained from public sources. Protecting this information is essential to protecting yourself and your loved ones from having their identity compromised. Protecting your own information is the first step to ensuring that your information is safe. There are always going to be times that you have to divulge this information to certain types of companies but it’s about minimizing the people that have this information and securing it for yourself that can ultimately protect you. One of the most prominent threats that comes from the compromise of PII is identity theft. If someone who is looking to steal your identity gets a part of your PII then they would be able to use that information to not only collect more information about you, but they could potentially use that to successfully take your identity for themselves. This isn’t to say that just because your...
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...Abstract The Federal Trade Commission considers identity theft to be the fastest growing crime in the country. The Internet has become a hot zone for attracting identity theft thieves to steal personal information. Identity theft is divided into four basic areas – financial identity theft, criminal identity theft, identity cloning and business and commercial identity theft. Criminals obtain our personal information through methods such as using an insider, dumpster diving, computer hacking, war driving, phishing and pre-texting. The Department of Justice prosecutes identity theft under federal statutes. Congress passed the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act, Title 18 United States Code 1028 in 1998. One of the most noted identity theft cases was USA v. Cummings. The largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice involved eleven people who stole more than forty million credit and debit card numbers. To severely curtail on identity theft, President Bush mandated Executive Order 13402 called the Identity Theft Task Force. Identity theft causes immeasurable damage to peoples’ names and reputations. Greater awareness and education will help us to combat identity theft. Identity Theft It’s a nightmare that can leave an unsuspecting person feeling violated and vulnerable. It doesn’t care who you are or where you live. Gender, race and age are totally irrelevant. In this modern technological age, it is a crime that can realistically...
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...IDENTITY THEFT NAME: INSTITUTION: IDENTITY THEFT Identity theft refers to a situation where a person uses information used to identify another person, such as their name, credit card number or social security number without their permission, in order to commit fraud or other crimes. In other words, it is stealing the identity of a certain person and pretending to be that person by assuming their identity, usually so as to access their resources or to obtain recognition and other profits in their name (Cheney, 2005). There are many forms of crime related to identity theft. Some identity thieves rent apartments or get credit cards or phone accounts in the names of their victims. These victims may not learn out about it for some period of time, until they notice some charges they did not make, or are contacted by a person or people claiming that they owe them. It may sometimes cost them hundreds or thousands of dollars and a lot of time while trying to undo the damage (Keith, 2005). Identity theft could ruin an otherwise spotless reputation. It could also lead to much suffering if the victims are held responsible for the thief’s actions. TYPES OF IDENTITY THEFT Identity theft can be divided into the following categories: • Criminal identity theft, that is, pretending to be another person when arrested for an offense • Child identity theft. • Financial identity theft, that is, using the identity of another...
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...Identity Theft James Middleton AIU Online Abstract In this paper we will discuss identity theft. What is identity theft, what are some of the more common ways that people have become victims to identity theft? We will discuss how the law has changed and what the law has accomplished. Also how the law now protects the victim. Identity Theft What is identity theft; which is often referred to as identity fraud, which refers to all types id crime involving someone wrongfully obtain and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves deception (findlaw.com, n.d.). By definition of the Identity Theft & Assumption Deterrence Act (ITAD) of 1998, specified that it is a federal crime to knowing transfer or use without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abed any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or constitutes a felony under any applicable state or local law (OVC, 2010). If a person steals another person’s identity but does not cause any monetary damage has a crime been committed? I would have to say yes, based on the definition of the ITAD Act. You transfer or use another person’s identity with the intent to commit a crime and you are caught; yes it is a crime. The most common ways to commit identity theft, is either to listen to someone’s conversation while they are giving out a credit card number over the phone, by “dumpster diving” when they can obtain...
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...Identity Theft Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. Every minute about nine people have their identity stolen. (Identity Theft and Identity Fraud, 2013). Identity theft can happen to anyone at any time. A consumer can protect themselves without having to purchase a protection program. Protection programs are available to help consumers protect their identity. An identity theft program isn’t the best protection against identity theft. There are a number of protection plan companies a consumer can choose from. Each company has their own plans to choose from and each have different rates. A consumer can review the ratings of each company also. When a consumer has a protection program there are some advantages. These programs review the client’s credit reports with credit monitoring. When a consumer purchases a protection program, fraud insurance is granted to the consumer. This insurance covers a few areas. The insurance will cover all legal services endured by the consumer, it covers all out-of-pocket services that the consumer pays out, and some of the companies offer a private investigator and assigns them to help with the claim. There are a number of disadvantages to having a protection program. These programs will not prevent identity theft. In order for a consumer to get a protection plan, they must pay a monthly/yearly fee for the program. If a consumer’s identity is stolen, the consumer will not be reimbursed for any money that has...
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...Identity Theft I know three people who have been affected by identity theft in the past. They were forced to deal with the hassle of clearing and repairing their good names and financial reputations. According to my research, there was a new victim of identity theft in the U.S. every two seconds within the last year and over 9 million Americans reported that their identity had been stolen (Rogers, 2014). The primary complaint on the Federal Trade Commission’s list of top consumer complaints is identity theft (Trowbridge, 2014). This crime has gone from actions like rooting through a person’s trash and stealing their mail to confidence scams to gain access to personal information. With the possibilities that are provided by the internet criminals are capable of gaining access to and stealing personal information from a larger pool of prospective victims from all across the world. What is Identity Theft? According to Merriam-Webster, identity theft is “the illegal use of someone else's personal information (as a Social Security number) especially in order to obtain money or credit” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). Some of the items that a person would utilize to steal another person’s identity are Social Security Numbers, driver's license numbers or their date of birth just to name a few of the pieces of information. The thief can take this information and use it to obtain things such as credit cards, bank accounts, auto loans, and home mortgages in the victim’s name. Some...
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...Dangers of Identity Theft Sharae Ernst IFSM 201 – Summer 2012 8/3/2012 “Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personally identifying information (PII), like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes.” (Fighting Back Against Identity Theft: Federal Trade Commission). According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft complaints have decreased since year 2008 (314,521 to 250,854). It is estimated by the FTC that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. As information technology progresses along with society, there is always an increased risk of having one’s identity stolen. “Identity theft was the number one complaint category in the CSN for calendar year 2010 with 19% of the overall complaints, followed by Debt Collection (11%); Internet Services (5%); Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries (5%); Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales (4%); Imposter Scams (4%); Internet Auction (4%); Foreign Money Offers and Counterfeit Check Scams (3%); Telephone and Mobile Services (3%); and Credit Cards (2%).” (Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book: For January - December 2010, 2011). Although the numbers have slightly decreased, overall, identity theft is on the rise. “According to a February 2012 Javelin Study, identity theft rose 13% from 2010 to 2011. More than 11.6 million adults became a victim of identity theft in the United States during 2011.” (Coping with Identity Theft: Reducing...
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...Identity theft Identity theft is a major issue in our society today. It’s criminal and deceitful. It comes in all shapes and sizes, and outcomes are devastating. I currently work at a bank and dealing with identity theft occurs in my day to day tasks. I constantly have to watch all the checks that I cash and deposit to make sure that they are ending up where they are meant to. Also, forgery and duplicating checks is a big issue. We have to make sure the signatures match, as well as verify some other things on people’s accounts. Identity theft could be reduced if all the available tools were used. It is important to everyone, that this issue is addressed in its entirety. We, as a bank offered some identity theft block, free to our customers up to a year. This was a program where people watched your credit report and if anything suspicious came up they alerted you right away. I think that this was a good start to protecting yourself. But the banking industry should have some broader solutions for helping with identity theft. There are some new computer systems that I’m aware of. These new technologies will be able to help prevent fraud. Pictures of people’s IDs are coming up on the screens at banks so that we don’t have to ask for IDs. This makes it a lot easier to do our jobs as tellers. Identity theft has grown a lot since the use of the internet has become so much more common. Before, all someone had to do was go dumpster diving or look over someone’s shoulder. With the...
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...head: IDENTITY THEFT: IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE Identity Theft: In More Ways than One Justin S. Evangelist CMRJ 306 D002 Criminal Investigation American Military University Identity Theft: In More Ways than One We have all watched the news; we have all heard the stories. It’s on commercials and television shows. Identity theft is sweeping across the nation and it something we should all take very seriously. Identity theft is a form of fraud or taking away someone else’s identity in order to gain something, usually financial means (Swanson, Chamelin, Territo & Taylor, 2009). The Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as nine million Americans have their identity stole each year, resulting in over 50 billion dollars of financial loss (Mercuri, 2006). There are several different forms of identity fraud, several which not everyone has heard of. The three main types of identity theft consist of criminal identity theft, medical identity theft and child identity theft. Criminal identity theft occurs when a victim’s name, address, and other personal details are given to law enforcement officials during the commission of a crime. The victim is then mistakenly arrested (Mercuri, 2006). Often times, the imposter has obtained some sort of tangible, personal information from the victim, usually a driver’s license. Once the name of an innocent identity theft victim is assigned to the criminal act of the true perpetrator, it can be very difficult for the identity theft...
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...Aug 26, 2013 Research Paper: Identity Theft Identity theft, also known as ID theft is a crime in which a criminal obtains key pieces of personal information, such as Social Security or driver's license numbers, in order to pretend to be someone else. The information can be used to obtain credit, merchandise, and services using the victims’ name. Identity theft can also provide a thief with false credentials for immigration or other applications. One of the biggest problems with identity theft is that very often the crimes committed by the identity theft expert are often credited to the victim. A thief could take out a mortgage in your name or commit a crime and pretend to be you when caught. Thieves can even use your personal information to apply for a job or use your medical insurance. Identity theft has become one of the world’s leading crimes in the world. Identity theft drastically increased in the year 2000 by nearly 52%, occurring every half second all across the world. There are two primary types of identity theft: ~Account takeover ~True name theft Account takeover identity theft refers to the type of situation where an imposter uses the stolen personal information to gain access to the person’s existing accounts. Often the identity thief will use the stolen identity to run up current credit lines, by changing your address so that you never see the credit card bills that the thief constantly runs up. True name identity theft means that the thief uses personal...
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...the centuries, the term ‘identity theft’ has meant many things. People have pretended to be other when committing crimes to avoid sentencing. Identities have been stolen in order to obtain certain medical care or drugs that would be unavailable otherwise. In this day and age, identity theft has become synonymous with finances. Thieves all over the world are using various methods to gain access to your money; and they’re more successful at it now than ever before. According to a 2013 Javelin report, 13.1 million people in the United States suffered financially because of identity fraud. According to multiple reports, that number is expected to rise in 2014 and beyond. As we get smarter about how financial identity theft is committed, criminals become smarter about gaining our sensitive information. When we became good about shredding old credits cards and bank statements, they used e-mail and phone schemes to coax us into giving our information to them. Companies invest millions of dollars into new technologies meant to keep criminals out of databases, and criminals simply bypass these obstacles with combinations of cutting-edge and archaic techniques. It’s a vicious cycle that seems to have no end. So how can we as consumers protect ourselves from these identity thieves? Consumers must take a more active role in their financial lives, especially when it comes to online transactions. People often rely on stores and banks to protect their identities online. This is a huge mistake...
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...Abstract Culprits of identity theft are the modern day con artists that are able to convince and persuade people out of their money by promising their victims a portion of wealth which will never come to be. This paper will describe what is classified as identity theft, how people become victims of this crime and how people can avoid being becoming a victim to this popular means of deception in the electronic world. On the average one hundred thousand people are affected by identity theft in the United States per year and over two billion dollars in revenue is stolen as shown in the surveys that were conducted in 2003 -2006 (Anderson, Durbin & Salinger). Because of this threat the consumer becomes skeptical of online transactions which cause loss of business to many retailers as they are based solely on internet sales. For the retailer to make sure that the consumer is protected from fraudulent transactions and the possibility of their personal information to be at risk of being intercepted by others, the retailers need to incorporate special systems onto their site and have special programs that could make the purchasing of items from their business complicated for the consumer and will also raise the price of the goods to offset their loss on the security measures. The way people are committing the crimes of identity theft are only limited by the imagination of the person that commits these types of crimes. The source can be from someone...
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