Essay On Identity Theft

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Identity theft is a crime where an imposter gets his or her hands on personal information in order to impersonate someone else. Findings show that an estimated 11.3 million people are victims of identity theft (Taylor, C. 2014). Once the impersonator gets their hands on this information, it can be used to obtain credit, merchandise or any other objects in the name of that individual. An imposter could provide false information to police, leaving behind a criminal record or outstanding arrest warrants for the person whose identity has been stolen. Identity theft can be categorized in two ways: true name and account takeover. True name identity theft means the thief will use the personal information they stole to open new accounts. The thief could open a new credit card account, establish cellular phone service, or open a new checking account in order to get blank checks. Account takeover identity theft means the thief uses personal information to gain access to the person's existing accounts. That individual ends up changing the mailing address on an account and they can run up a huge bill before the person whose identity has been stolen realizes there is a problem. With technology expansion, the Internet has definitely made it easier for an identity thief to use the information they've stolen because transactions can be made without having any personal interaction (Mathews, R. 2013). Identity theft impacts our society and people’s businesses. Identity thieves will use business owner’s personal information to open up new lines of credit, new accounts, and make large purchases. Unjustifiable accounts and unpaid purchases will result in collectors holding you personally accountable for the business debt until you can p... ... middle of paper ... ...sign up for a monitoring service that will alert you by email to changes in your credit report which is a helpful way to prevent identity theft (Gerstner, L. (2013). It is important to protect your security number as well. Make sure your bank does not print your Social Security Number on your personal checks. Follow your credit card billing cycles very closely. Identity thieves start by changing your billing address so keeping track of your credit card bill every month will lessen ones chances becoming a victim of identity theft. [2] If your wallet is stolen, alert your creditors as quickly as possible to prevent identity theft. Create passwords or PIN numbers with a mix of random letters and numbers. By doing so, it will make it that much harder for identity thieves to figure out these codes, and makes it easier for you to prevent being a victim of identity theft.

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