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Assignment states thatleading cause of identity theft is internet where information is stolen online from transaction

Home, - IDENTITY THEFT

Introduction 

Over 13.1 Million People have been affected with cases of identity theft as of 2014 with the number of affected people keep rising with time. When other people impose with crucial pieces of personally identifiable information such as driver’s license, passport details or even social security all to getcredit, merchandise and services of individuals is considered as an identity theft crime. In other occasions, these imposters issuewrong personal details to the police creating criminal records or outstanding arrest warrants to the person whose identity is stolen. Identity theft is categorized into two main groups: account take over and true name. In true-name crime, the thief uses personal details to open new accounts such as credit cards, new checking accounts to obtain blank checks and establishment of cellular phone services. As for account take over, personal information is used to get access to existing accounts. The leading cause of identity theft is the internet where information is stolen online from transactions made online through e-commerce websites("Search security," 2019).

Identity Theft

Cases of identity theft are seen upraising in the society from time to time, in Manhattan a man by the name of Sharif King was convicted with two cases of identity theft schemes that happened in 2013 and 2014 respectively. According to New York’s Auto Insurance Fraud Unit Sharif had stolen personal identifying information of employees and prospective employees and used their identities to fraudulently buy a $58,000 Mercedes Benz Sprinter 2015 mode, steal an $8,000 insurance settlement and later attempted to take a $29,000 loan("Manhattan Man Convicted in Two Identity Theft Schemes", 2019).

In other cases, a former campus watchman in Florida high school was accused of identity thievery. The former campus watchman known as Christopher Corey Barker aged 34, of Lauderdale Lakes was found with personal information of 19 people in his car.According to his arrest details, Baker was under investigation for driving a vehicle that had a fraudulent temporary license tag. Upon searching of his vehicle, the police found a backpack that contained gift cards, two notebooks listing bank accounts, stolen mail, social security numbers, and credit card numbers that belong to the 19 individuals. Six of the individual who cooperated with the police claimed they were not aware of Bakers possession with their credentials("Former campus watchman at Florida high school accused of identity theft," 2019).

A 35-year-old man from Los Angeles David Mathew Read impersonated himself as Mooreand reported her No-limit American express card was stolen. He intercepted the delivery of the card from FedEx before its shipment. For 25 days, he used the card on lavish spending both online and in stores, overall, charges accumulated exceeded $169,000 before Moore noticed and reported the theft(Keylor, 2019).

In Reno, NV a 47-year-old former IT Kenneth Gibson who was working for a large company where he had access to personally identifiable information of thousands of employees and customers. Gibson using the personal data he gathered was able to open about 8,000 unauthorized PayPal accounts where he was able to walk away with 3.5 million dollars, which he used the money lavishly(Daitch, 2019).

Reality TV star Shannade Clermont aged 25 years pleaded guilty to the police in New York after he was found to have stolen a dead man's credit card and used it for shopping items worth $20,000. Clermont was arrested and sentenced a one-year jail term as of January 31, 2017 ("nypost," 2019).

Conclusion 

For protection against cases of identity theft, there are some things one should keep in mind like securing your Social Security number (SSN) and not carrying of your Social Security card in your wallet. Only give out your SSN when necessary, not sharing of personal information (birthdate, Social Security number, or bank account number), paying attention to your billing cycles, if bills or financial statements are late, contact the sender and updating sharing and firewall settings when you're on a public Wi-Fi network. One should use a virtual private network if you use public Wi-Fi (Frauds, 2019).

When persons involve in identity theft, he or she has violated the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act that is considered as a federal crime. This act stipulates that a person whose identity has been violate is a true victim, previously credit grantors were the only considered victims. This law is followed by the Theft Penalty Enhancement Act passed in 2004, which increased the penalties for "aggravated" identity theft, requiring courts to execute additional sentences of two years for general offenses and five years for terrorism-related crimes ("Identity Theft - FindLaw," 2019).


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