Essay on "Identity Theft"

Essay 4 pages (1071 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Identity theft raises serious concerns in the age of information technology. While more cases of identity theft occur due to access to paper sources, there are still a sizeable number of cases being reported of identity theft occurring due to online activities. And with the increase in the use of Internet for everything from shopping to chatting to online banking, the risk of identity and privacy being compromised is also on the rise. Identity theft refers to knowingly using someone else's identity as one's own for financial or non-financial purposes. Congress in 1998 passed the Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act that defined an identity theft criminal as someone who:

…knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful authority, any name or number that may be used, alone or in conjunction with any other information, to identify a specific individual with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law.

Everyone who has been using Internet for sometime is aware of the possibility of identity theft and yet very few know exactly how they can make their identity more secure online. This is because expert hackers are always coming up with new and better ways to trick an online user into parting with his personal and financial information. One of the very common ways of getting access to a person's information which can later be misused is called phishing. "Phishing refers to gathering identity information from victims under false pretences, such as pretending to be a representative of a financial institution collecting personal information to update financial records."

This is where a person would receive an email that seems to be coming from a legitimate source. The email would contain links to a well-known retailer or bank's fake site where they would ask for your financial or personal information including SSN which are being used by some fraudster on the other side. Phishing is a popular trick with identity thieves since many unsuspecting users have become victims of identity theft through legitimate-looking emails that even contained an authentic firm logo. This has caused serious damage as Gartner research group reported, "Phishing attacks in the United States soared in 2007 as $3.2 billion was lost to these attacks….3.6 million adults lost money in phishing attacks in the 12 months ending in August 2007, as compared with the 2.3 million who did so the year before."

There are also spyware attacks, illicit pop-ups, spasm mail and several other ways of accessing financial information. This information is then used to make fraudulent credit card payments, opening new bank accounts or lines of credit and shopping online and other similar damaging activities. All this may happen while the unwitting victim is completely unaware of what is happening. By the time he realizes, his bank account and credit cards may already have been accessed and robbed. In the U.S., extensive drive to secure personal and financial information has resulted in some decrease in financial losses occurring due to identity theft but still in 2007, the loss was estimated to be around an overwhelming $45 billion in the United States alone.… READ MORE

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