Identity Theft: All Types Of Crime

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.

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

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

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that requires covered entities to maintain reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for protecting electronic patient health information (e-PHI) (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules). Entities must: 1) ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all e-PHI they create, receive, maintain, or transmit; 2) identity and protect against reasonable anticipated threats to the security or integrity of the information; 3) protect against reasonable anticipated , impermissible users or disclosures; and 4) ensure compliance in the workplace. Entities must review and modify security measures to continue protecting e-PHI in a changing environment. They are required to run risk assessments as part of security measures, implement security measures that reduce risks and vulnerabilities to a reasonable and appropriate level, and designate a security officer responsible for developing and implementing its security policies and procedures.

One reason identify theft is being a fast growing crime in the United State is because; more people credit card information is being stolen. Around 10% of American has fallen victims to credit card theft. Around 7% of Americans have been victim of debit or ATM fraud and 12% of the fraud was on internet websites and 10 % was on the telephone. One example of identity theft was eighteen months after moving in with his fiancée Joe Tremba begain to receive collection letter about past due credit card account that have been given to a collection agency. Tremba who always pays his bills on time was

While looking through the Bureau of Statistics Website, I came across the Victims of Identity Theft, 2014 Bulletin, where I found some interesting statistics.

Identity theft is said to be one of the fasting growing crimes in America. According to our textbook, the lifestyle exposure theory, explains the different levels of exposure risk and how some people are exposed to higher risk than others depending on their lifestyle. Identity theft or fraud is when someone takes illegal actions and steal someone’s personal information to gain something from it. The theft can gain access to demographic information easily from the internet to get your name, email address, telephone number, birthday, and even your physical address (Archer, 2012).

Identity theft is a fast growing white-collar crime that is gaining the notoriety of an epidemic. There is a wealth of information on identity theft and prevention yet this area of crime is developing rapidly and is shrouded in myths.

Identity theft is the least understood of all problems, though this assumption of our identities for fraudulent purposes is the most alarming of all problems. It is the most rapidly growing crime in the United States. It is quite complex, and this is how fraudsters work. A fraudster gets hold of your personal information, including your social security number and the numbers of your credit cards, among others. It is not so difficult if you are not careful. He/she assumes your identity, runs up astronomical bills, and leaves you holding the bag. This leaves you with a credit record that is totally ruined, and creditors at your door screaming for their money.

Identity theft involves gathering valuable information retaining to an individual in order to make a financial gain out of the process. This’ll usually involve the attacker having to open a bank account in the victim’s name and ask for a new credit card for the account. They can then withdraw as much money as they please from the account before the victim can do anything. In 2014, 47% of American adults had their personal information stolen by hackers making identity theft the largest cybercrime to date. According to the U.S Justice Department, every 3 seconds someone becomes a victim of identity theft. Over $18 billion had been stolen as a result. Identity theft comes from hackers or scammers either convincing victims into giving up personal

“Big data breaches of identity theft increased nearly 20 percent from last year and more than 10 million cases of Americans’ personal records being exposed or published have already been reported in 2014 – making it the most common consumer complaint in the U.S. According to The Bureau of Justice Statistics, 16.6 million American adults were victims of identity theft in 2012, while just 6.8 million total non-fatal violent crimes occurred in the same period. The same Justice Department report from December 2013 revealed that more than 34.2 million U.S. adults – 14 percent of all Americans over the age of 16 – had experienced some type of identity theft.” (Washington-CBS DC Report, July

When people think of identity theft, more often than not they assume that it only happens to wealthy people. Who would bother stealing the identity of a college student who can barely make ends meet? The harsh reality of the matter is that anyone can be a victim.

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.

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 affects millions of Americans every day. Scam artists and hackers lay in wait for an unsuspecting person to get caught up their scheme through ignorance or naivety so they can take full advantage of their personal information to do as they desire with it. Problem is, it infiltrates and depreciates the integral infrastructure of our society which creates a cultural lapse through the declination of economic and cultural growth and double jeopardizes an already unstable system to the brink of its destruction. To understand how