Identity Theft Essay

Introduction

Identity theft is not something new but it is definitely on the increase Sadly, several thousands of victims all over the world fall a prey to identity theft every year. In 1988, the US Congress passed the Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act (ITADA) to receive cases and complaints from customers on identity theft. In Year 2001 the cases received reached 86,212, By 2004 end, the complaints reached 214,905 (FTC, 2004). In Year 2001 “The Social Security Administration” also received approximately 65,000 cases of misuse of “Social Security Number”. In the list of Federal Trade Commission Identity theft too was on top of consumer complaint (FTC 2007).

It was a rising concern which forced the lawmakers to work on bills to criminalized the act and expand the rights of victims. In the beginning when ITADA was passed, only a few states had specific laws for Identity Theft. The law exists in most of the places with different variations and behavior classified.

The media also played the important role in awareness of this issue. They started covering maximum such cases to spread awareness in masses. Media helped in educating consumers to use their personal information data carefully and marketing the products helping secure the personal data for consumers.

In this research paper we will provide an overview on Identity Theft. It begins with the discussion about “Identity Theft” that how difficult it becomes in defining the crime. The next three section will be discussed on “What is Identity Theft”, “How it happens” & “Opportunities available for such crimes”

Defining – Identity Theft

Identity theft is situation in which the Identity Thief collects your information from different sources that are easily accessible today due to digital revolution. Online accounts including your ecommerce accounts, social media accounts such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram and even your bank accounts. In this report, you will get details on how Identity Theft works and precautions you should take to be safe from such situation.

Technology is changing at a very rapid pace and we are getting accustomed to today’s digital world. Access of personal information on social media is easily accessible and gives the Identity Thief an opportunity to misuse the available information. People post their activities on social sites at internet such as posting holiday pictures on Facebook or Instagram while holidaying which gives Identity thieves an opportunity to break into their personal accounts, home, offices and collect the information required to commit crimes. Majorly these things are planned and sometime it happens with small opportunity available like if any such opportunist gets any personal information about anyone and he is in need of something which can be fulfilled using the following information they take advantage of situation and misuses the information to fulfill their requirement. In such cases the criminal is actually not criminal by plan, he becomes the same with situational requirements and opportunity available. There are many ways our personal information can be easily taken out, the device used to open any personal account from ecommerce sites to bank accounts is not protected with any anti-virus or any better security software can be easily hacked. These situations can place you in a risky position to being a victim of identity theft. It can become as platter for the Identity Theft criminals as they keep on searching such opportunity to acquire personal data to do crimes.

  Identity theft is against the law and can expose anyone towards dangerous situation of losing their personal information. Online Shopping became a famous trend nowadays due to convenience and increasing demand of digital society. The consumer need is increasing towards comfort, convenience and luxury which has opened the door for digital business expansion. Every new innovation has pros and cons and we all use e-commerce sites as per our needs and priorities. There are many payment options to pay online at such ecommerce sites for the products we buy, most of the time, people pay through credit or debit card, internet banking or through wallets. If the ecommerce site account is not trusted to protect your information, given the opportunity to the Identity Thieves to steal the information and misuse the same. someone will have your credit or debit card number, bank/wallet account details and can use it to purchase anything online to utilize the balance which can be from products sometime they use personally or sometime it is bought to sale and earn cash. Such frauds are rarely caught as after purchase or using the amount these thieves disappear and the victims has to bear the cost of being victimized.

Different Patterns of Identity Theft  

There are different forms of identity theft. Some of digital or technological methods are used by the thieves like “Skimming” which is a method to break into someone’s account at ATM where criminal attaches a small device at the ATM machine to scans your magnetic card and uses the same later to withdraw money from your account.

 Another online activity the identity thief uses is the “phishing” method where the crook pretends to be a company or a financial institution and sends spam or pop up message to deceive you into revealing your personal information. Yet another digital method of collecting your personal information is the “Computer Identity Theft” in which the data can easily be accessed with your IP address (Morris). Traditional methods like pick-pocketing, breaking into your homes or offices to steal the information or identity, is another way of doing it.

 Many agencies collect personal information data including government agencies form the different transactions we do online and offline from subscribing newsletters to e-commerce purchase, answering surveys to taking part in online competitions, filling out any property or government forms to giving your information for any institution or industry. It has become very easy for Identity Theft criminals to access personal information data through various channels and platforms of primary and secondary data source.

Preventing - Identity Theft

We can prevent Identity Theft and save ourselves to be victimized or even our friends, family and relatives by keeping ourselves vigilant while using our personal information. We should be care full using our personal information offline at banks, offices, cyber café, supermarkets, gas stations etc. and online at social media sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. or any ecommerce sites. The devices used to access any personal information should be security protected and avoid accessing personal data at some other person’s device at any point of time unless very urgent. If you use any unknown device to access your personal data, try to immediately change the passwords as soon as you get access at your device. We should always protect our personal information in any source we are using, be it banking data or any social media account. We should always put difficult passwords to stop such criminals to victimize us. It will be hard to remember but will keep you safe for long, like your mixing different important dates as anniversary/birthday etc. or mobile verification with OTP every time we do any transaction from updating data to online bank transaction. Adding extra security will help prevent such criminal acts. We should install good security software on the devices we use to access any personal information. We should always be vigilant in crowded areas where pick-pocket or any such situation can happen to protect and personal information. We should also be careful using an ATM machine by standing right in the center of the machine while withdrawing cash, cover the keyboard with your other hand while you type the password for the transaction and always discard the transaction receipt if you print outside the ATM, never tear and throw in ATM machine dustbins as they can easily be taken to misuse. Same thing applies to your home or office, to avoid the “garbage divers”, who can peak into your personal information from your garbage at office or home use proper shredder to shred any important document proper before throwing out. Always avoid giving personal information to any service call from banks or from any promotional brand as they sometime starts asking your details. Always remember any bank will never take any personal information on phone, they verify your details on IVR. Raise an alarm if you feel some fraudulent situation. Try not to give detailed information to any one in any situation unless it is properly verified and authenticated.