Identity Theft

Everyone loves shopping online, you save time, not exactly money, but who cares when its holiday time, at least you wont need to fight for a parking spot in the hectic malls. Growing up in mericas technological day and age, almost everyone has a computer or at least knows how to operate one. !eople like the easy way out, and it has its benefits. "ear by year, things seem to get easier and easier. Therefore, people are getting la#ier. $ell, I say, goodbye %la#iness&, and hello %being aware of where you place those important documents&.

Theres very little you can do to prevent it, and you wont know its happened to you until its too late. Identity theft is currently the fastest growing type of robbery in the 'nited (tates. $hen a person steals someones identification documents without them knowing, and uses their information, the crime is called %Identity Theft&. % bout one in five victims knows the identity thief as a relative, roommate, neighbor, or coworker, according to the )T* I+ Theft +ata *learinghouse report, says reporter Isham ,ones for -ealtor .aga#ine /nline.

There are two main types of identity fraud that enables people to steal your identity. They are financial fraud, being the most widespread including credit card, bank, telecommunications, tax refund, and several other types of scams. *riminal activity is the other type fraud that involves taking someones identity and using it to commit heinous crimes. %Identity theft accounted for 01 percent of the thousands of consumer complaints reported to the )T* in 1223. The )T* processes these complaints through *onsumer (entinel, an electronic clearinghouse available to investigative groups such as the )4I and the '.(. (ecret (ervice as well as to similar groups in other countries&, reports $aterline reporter *arole $. 4utler.

There are many laws that lash out against identity theft and help protect you against it, but it doesnt seem like its scaring any of the criminals. I+ theft is still the number one crime in merica555

Identity theft can happen to anyone, and to avoid being put in a situation like this one you have to review your *redit report at least once a year. !urchase a shredder to shred all documents with personal information before throwing them away. 4e responsible over every bank statement, and keep them under close watch. +ont send mail using your unsecured mailbox. 6ave your social security number changed if it is the same as your drivers license number. +o not pre print your (ocial (ecurity 7umber on your checks. "ou never supposed to carry your (ocial (ecurity *ard in your wallet or purse. 8ast but not least, keep the items that contain your personal information in a confined place. In most Identity9theft cases, the victim often has to prove his or her innocence. %.ost new identity9theft victims expect the police, the credit

grantors, the credit9reporting agencies and others in high places to help them&, says past identity theft victim .ari ,. )rank. .aybe it should be that way : but it ;ust isnt.

Identity Theft

In today<s society, there is a white9collar crime that has greatly risen in popularity among criminals. This crime is identity theft. 6undreds of thousands of people have their identities stolen each year. Identity theft is when these criminals obtain and use consumers personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, insurance information, and social security numbers to purchase goods or services fraudulently. ccording to the )ederal Trade *ommission, over 3.3 million people were the victim of identity theft. $ith this number, it is very evident that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in our country. This paper will attempt to more thoroughly define identity theft. It will give examples of identity theft by examining the stories of -osalie !ugliese and .ari )rank. It will show ways in which this very easily committed crime can be avoided, and in the extreme case that a person is a victim of identity fraud, to show the steps one can take to get their lives back on track. ccording to identityguard.com, identity theft is defined as, =when someone uses your name or personal information to open a credit account, take out a loan, or make a ma;or purchase. nd if they can do it once, they can do it repeatedly, using each new account as a reference for the next one. The result is that identity thieves can run up thousands of dollars worth of charges or obligations all in your name.= In our current society, si...

... middle of paper ...

...mes in the country. It may be the fastest growing white9collar crime out there. $ith nothing more than your name, your (ocial (ecurity number, and date of birth, the only thing that can limit an identity thief is the thief=s creativity. They are able to do anything from open credit card accounts to open accounts and take out loans. $ith this basic information, they can get a ;ob in your name, possibly tarnishing an honest person=s good name. They can apply for anything from cell phones to health insurance. $ith more than 3.3 million victims of identity theft each year, it is very important to know how to protect yourself from identity theft. It is ;ust as, if not more important to know what to do in the case that your identity is stolen

Identity Theft

Everyone loves shopping online, you save time, not exactly money, but who cares when its holiday time, at least you wont need to fight for a parking spot in the hectic malls. Growing up in

mericas technological day and age, almost everyone has a computer or at least knows how to operate one. !eople like the easy way out, and it has its benefits. "ear by year, things seem to get easier and easier. Therefore, people are getting la#ier. $ell, I say, goodbye %la#iness&, and hello %being aware of where you place those important documents&.

Theres very little you can do to prevent it, and you wont know its happened to you until its too late. Identity theft is currently the fastest growing type of robbery in the 'nited (tates. $hen a person steals someones identification documents without them knowing, and uses their information, the crime is called %Identity Theft&. % bout one in five victims knows the identity thief as a relative, roommate, neighbor, or coworker, according to the )T* I+ Theft +ata *learinghouse report, says reporter Isham ,ones for -ealtor .aga#ine /nline. There are two main types of identity fraud that enables people to steal your identity. They are financial fraud, being the most widespread including credit card, bank, telecommunications, tax refund, and several other types of scams. *riminal activity is the other type fraud that involves taking someones identity and using it to commit heinous crimes. %Identity theft accounted for 01 percent of the thousands of consumer complaints reported to the )T* in 1223. The )T* processes these complaints through *onsumer (entinel, an electronic clearinghouse available to investigative groups such as the )4I and the '.(. (ecret (ervice as well as to similar groups in other countries&, reports $aterline reporter *arole $. 4utler. There are many laws that lash out against identity theft and help protect you against it, but it doesnt seem like its scaring any of the criminals. I+ theft is still the number one crime in merica555 Identity theft can happen to anyone, and to avoid being put in a situation like this one you have to review your *redit report at least once a year. !urchase a shredder to shred all documents with personal information before throwing them away. 4e responsible over every bank statement, and keep them under close watch. +ont send mail using your unsecured mailbox. 6ave your social security number changed if it is the same as your drivers license number. +o not pre print your (ocial (ecurity 7umber on your checks. "ou never supposed to carry your (ocial (ecurity *ard in your wallet or purse. 8ast but not least, keep the items that contain your personal information in a confined place. In most Identity9theft cases, the victim often has to prove his or her innocence. %.ost new identity9theft victims expect the police, the credit grantors, the credit9reporting agencies and others in high places to help them&, says past identity theft victim .ari ,. )rank. .aybe it should be that way : but it ;ust isnt. 6ave you ever gone to the store to buy grocery and didnt have any money, so you used a check to pay. /n the check you had your name, home address, and your social security number. "ou never think twice that the person behind you is looking at you social and name. The next month you go to *ircuit city to purchase a system for your car and your credit loan is turned down. fter checking with E>uifax to find out why you were turned down, you

Solving Identity Theft

Identity theft is the information age's new crime. A criminal collects enough personal data on the victim to impersonate him to banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions. Then he racks up debt in the victim's name, collects the cash and disappears. The victim is left holding the bag. While some of the losses are absorbed by financial institutions--credit card companies in particular--the credit-rating damage is borne by the victim. It can take years for the victim to completely clear his name. o far, we've seen several !solutions! to this problem" forcing companies to disclose when they lose personal information, forcing companies to secure personal information, forcing financial institutions to enhance their authentication procedures. #nfortunately, these won't help. To see why, we need to start with the basics. The very term !identity theft! is an o$ymoron. Identity is not a possession that can be ac%uired or lost& it's not a thing at all. omeone's identity is the one thing about a person that cannot be stolen. The real crime here is fraud--more specifically, impersonation leading to fraud. Impersonation is an ancient crime, but the rise of information-based credentials gives it a modern spin. A criminal impersonates a victim online and steals money from his account. 'e impersonates a victim in order to deceive financial institutions into granting credit to the criminal in the victim's name. 'e impersonates a victim to the post office and gets the victim's address changed. 'e impersonates a victim in order to fool the police into arresting the wrong man. (o one's identity is stolen& instead, identity information is being misused to commit fraud. uch crime involves two very separate issues. The first is the privacy of personal data. )ersonal privacy is important for many reasons, one of which is impersonation and fraud. As more information about us is collected, correlated and sold, it becomes easier for criminals to get their hands on the data they need to commit fraud. This is what you read about in the news" personal information stolen from companies, banks, universities, government databases. *ut data privacy is about more than +ust fraud. Whether it is the books we take out of the library, the Web sites we visit or the contents of our te$t messages, most of us have personal data on third-party computers that we don't want made public. The posting of )aris 'ilton's phone book on the Internet is a celebrity e$ample of this. The second issue is the ease with which a criminal can use personal data to commit fraud. It doesn't take much personal information to apply for a credit card in someone else's name. It's not that hard to conduct fraudulent bank transactions in someone else's name. And it's surprisingly easy to get an identification card in someone else's name. ,ur current culture, where identity is verified simply and sloppily, makes it easier for a criminal to impersonate his victim. )roposed fi$es tend to concentrate on the first issue--making personal data harder to steal--whereas the real problem is the second. If we're ever going to manage the risks and effects of electronic impersonation, we must concentrate on preventing and detecting fraudulent transactions. -raudulent transactions have nothing to do with the legitimate account holders. .riminals impersonate legitimate users to financial institutions. That means that any solution can't involve the account holders. That leaves only one reasonable answer" financial institutions need to be liable for the cost of fraudulent transactions. They need to be liable for sending erroneous information to credit bureaus based on fraudulent transactions. They should not be able to demand that the user must keep his password secure or his machine virus-free. They should not be able to re%uire the user to monitor his accounts for fraudulent activity, or his credit reports for fraudulently obtained credit cards. Those aren't reasonable re%uirements for most users. The bank must be responsible, regardless of what the user does. If you think this won't work, look at credit cards. .redit card companies like American /$press are generally liable for all but the first 012 of fraudulent transactions. They're not hurting for business& and they're not drowning in fraud either. They've developed and fielded an array of security technologies designed to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions. They've pushed most of the actual costs onto the merchants. And almost no security centers around are trying to authenticate the cardholder.

That's an important lesson. Identity theft solutions focus much too much on authenticating the person. Whether it's two-factor authentication--I3 cards, biometrics, or whatever--there's a widespread myth that authenticating the person is the way to prevent these crimes. *ut once you understand that the problem is fraudulent transactions, you %uickly reali4e that authenticating the transaction, not the person, is the way to proceed. Again, think about credit cards. tore clerks barely verify signatures when people use cards. )eople can use credit cards to buy things by mail, phone or Internet, where no one verifies the signature or even that you have possession of the card. /ven worse, no credit card company mandates secure storage re%uirements for credit cards. They don't demand that cardholders secure their wallets in any particular way. .redit card companies simply don't worry about verifying the cardholder or putting re%uirements on what he does. They concentrate on verifying the transaction. This same sort of thinking needs to be applied to other areas where criminals use impersonation to commit fraud. I don't know what the final solutions will look like, but I do know that once financial institutions are liable for losses due to these types of fraud, they will find solutions. 5aybe there will be a daily withdrawal limit, like there is on AT5s. 5aybe large transactions will be delayed for a period of time, or will re%uire a call-back from the bank or brokerage company. 5aybe people will no longer be able to open a credit card account by simply filling in a bunch of information on a form. 6ikely the solution will be a combination of solutions that reduces fraudulent transactions to a manageable level, but we'll never know until the financial institutions have the financial incentive to put them in place. 7ight now, the economic incentives result in financial institutions that are so eager to allow transactions--new credit cards, cash transfers, whatever--that they're not paying enough attention to fraudulent transactions. They've pushed the costs for fraud onto the merchants. *ut if they're liable for losses and damages to legitimate users, they'll pay more attention. And they'll mitigate the risks. ecurity technologies can work wonders in preventing identity theft, once the economic incentives to apply them are there. *y focusing on the fraudulent use of personal data, I do not mean to minimi4e the harm caused by other misuse of third-party data and violations of privacy. I believe that the #. . would be well-served by a comprehensive 3ata )rotection Act such as e$ists in the /uropean #nion. 'owever, I do not believe that a law of this type would significantly reduce the risk of fraudulent impersonation. To mitigate that risk, we need to concentrate on detecting and preventing fraudulent transactions. We need to make the entity, which is in the best position to mitigate the risk, responsible for that risk. And that means making the financial institutions liable for fraudulent transactions. 3oing anything less simply won't work.