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Identity Theft
Identity Theft concerns society at 3 levels :
- Personal
- Organisational
- National
Identity theft costs the UK £1.7bn a year
At a personal level victims of identity theft not only have to cope with huge debts which have been run up in their name or illegal activities carried out by criminals stealing their identity, but also often complain of feeling violated at a personal level.
Businesses are also being called to ensure they have processes in place to prevent identity theft.
At a national level, the growth of international terrorism and the discovering that laundered money is used to finance these operations has meant that the call to combat identity theft has become stronger.
The growth of identity theft is fuelled by various factors ranging from organised financial crime to international terrorism. The development of e-commerce has led to increased de-personalisation of the customer-supplier relationship and not knowing exactly whom they are dealing with puts the organisation, the industry it operates within and society as a whole at risk.
Identity theft is something that we are all worried about in these days of information technology. Never has the stealing of id or identity theft been such a problem nor has there been so much coverage of identity theft in the media.
Identity theft costs the government and financial services, such as banks and insurers, millions of pounds every year. To avoid identity theft, important identity documents should be kept safe. Individuals are constantly reminded to keep important documents that prove their identity safe. When documents such as a passport is lost, individuals can help prevent identity theft by reporting it as quickly as possible. The same with driving licences and other forms of ID that could potentially be used in identity robbery. Another way to avoid identity theft is by ensuring that important information is not given over the telephone, unless sure that the caller is legitimate.
What is Identity Theft?
The many recent advances in technology have made it possible to do just about anything that one could imagine! With just a few simple clicks on the computer and entering a few different keywords, a person can find just about any kind of information that they want. While this certainly makes it easier for businesses and consumers to communicate with each other and has given people many more opportunities, the continual advancements have also made it much easier for criminals and others with ill intentions to partake of some unsavory activities. The most common of those is identity theft, which has exploded onto the scene along with the Internet.
Identity theft is when a person steals the identity of another person and uses this information to cause damage to the other person, without having to take responsibility for it themselves. This can happen when someone gains access to someone else's credit card number and uses it to make costly charges to the credit card account. The credit card company charges the person whose account it was charged on and the criminal gets away without having to pay for the purchases and keeps their identity a mystery. Identity theft can also happen with bank balances, transferring money, buying cars, going on vacation, and just about anything else!
Depending on what the criminal intends to do with the information, any personal information can be used in order for identity theft to take place. Sometimes it's as little as an account number and other times information such as the person's maiden name, birth date, age, address, Social Security number, and name are needed. For this reason, individuals need to proceed with careful caution when deciding which information they will supply and to whom they will supply it to. People and companies don't always need this information and the individual has many rights regarding who will be authorized to have that information. Consumers should always be told if the information will be given or sold to a third party, who that party is and what they will do with the information. Individuals should also take great care in ensuring that they always keep this specific information as protected and discreet as possible at all times.