“According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Fraud Survey 2010-11, an estimated total of 1.2 million Australians aged 15 years and over were victim of at least one incident of identity fraud in the 12 months prior to the survey interview..” (Afp.gov.au, 2014) Identity fraud is a type of fraud that involves illegally pretending to be somebody else for a beneficial gain. This can result in emotional and/or financial devastation. This is a very common legal issue facing Australian stakeholders, costing them a total of $1.4 billion AUD to date (Afp.gov.au, 2014). Identity theft has many consequences and issues that are involved with it. As a result of this, laws have been put in place just for identity theft. Different stakeholder groups have been affected by identity theft and have responded in many ways. In Australia, Around 4.4 million Australians (26 per cent) have now been affected by identity theft (Stevens & Coghlan, 2009). With this large number affected, there have been many cases against the culprits, which will be analysed through this essay. There are solutions to this problem that can be followed to ensure a solution to identity theft.
In regards to identity theft, there are many legal issues that arise as a result of it being started. As stated before, having your identity stolen can be both emotionally and financially devastating. Usually, to steal ones identity, the perpetrator would dishonestly trick the victim into thinking they are a representative of legitimate company (bank, phone company). This can result in credit card fraud, document fraud, or employment fraud, which leaves the victim financially, broke. (Military Libraries Division (DMIL), 2014)
Due to these issues that are a result of identit...
... middle of paper ...
...t were often over the phone or through email. These people who have been affected by identity theft were so easily tricked that it is a serious issue for other Australians. There can be no solution to stop identity theft as no matter what is done, people will still attempt to steal any information they can from easily persuaded people.
The solution is to make the people of Australia aware of identity theft and make them do their homework and think twice. In relation to the expert opinions given by Siciliano, he says that it is the victim’s job to watch out for any chance of identity theft and lists the ways in which this can be done. This can help to stop identity theft. Not only this, but to increase the prison sentence and to create an individual section of law only for identity theft to have more precise and fair court orders for the seriousness of the case.
Identity theft has been a major issue of privacy and fraud. In the data breach analysis from the Identity Theft Resource Center (2013), the number of data breaches from the year 2005 to 2012 increased. In 2012, there had been 49% where the data breach exposed people Social Security Number. The data breach of 2012 has a rate of 27.4% caused by hackers. These breaches were commonly from 36.4% businesses and 34.7% health and medical (Identity Theft Resource Center 2013). The number of identity theft varies from physical possession to digital possession. At least one-fifth of trash cans contains papers listing people’s credit card number and personal information. People that throw away their trash mails contain much personal information that is useful to steal someone's identity (Davis, 2002). Technology becomes a need where people use it daily and as a result it has also become a use for identity theft as well. Throughout the years as technology develops so does identity theft. This paper shows the types, methods and technique used for identity theft, and it also examines possible risk of identity theft from current technology.
The internet and all technological advances give us easier communication and increase productivity, however, at what cost? The loss of one's privacy. It is okay only when it is violated for one's own protection. There are different reason, good and bad, for the loss in privacy. In 1984 the characters don't have privacy due to big brother always watching,the NSA does more snooping than securing, social media does more than connect friends, and technological advances make our lives easier.
The Internet plays the biggest role in identity theft. On the Internet, a thief can hide from detection while stealing peoples’ identities from their homes, being able to steal peoples’ information one by one “then disappearing into another identity,” (Vacca 60). Internet fraud consists of two phases. The first being spoofing where a fake site is set up made to look like the real thing. Once that is completed the second phase, phishing, begins. This usually starts with an email that uses the
Each year around 15 million United States residents are affected by Identity Theft. This causes financial losses of around $50 billion per year. The average amount of money stolen per victim is $4950! That is a lot of money that is just taken from people with little things they can do to affect their identity from being stolen. The most common age group for Identity Theft is 18-24. The 18-24 age groups hold over 20% of all Identities stolen. Did you know that around 6% of adults are affected by Identity Theft? People who steal other peoples Identities are just really rude. Most people work very hard to earn their money and when it gets stolen from them it is just wrong. According to statistic brain the Identity Theft fraud rate is growing very slowly each year, but it needs to be stopped completely.
The United States’ welfare system is designed to help its citizens live regular and full lives with all the opportunities that higher class citizens are exposed to and to help the unemployed look for long-term work so financially, they can become stable. This assistance is very beneficial (especially to the lower class) but annually, thousands of cases of welfare fraud are committed. The poor do not realize that this program does them the favor and is not a requirement by the government. The welfare system is a great assistance to the needy but these programs do not enable the receivers to become motivated to get off the program; instead it makes them more dependent towards the welfare system and receivers tend to want more and more assistance as time goes on. If welfare fraud continues to occur, the United States should let the people that absolutely need it receive their assistance regularly and target those who need it less and make the qualifications for welfare more complicated and tedious so to make it harder for those to receive welfare benefits, to help prevent welfare fraud, and to make people less anxious to apply for welfare if they don’t need it as much.
Identity theft is an increasing epidemic. Some of the ways a person can commit identity
Identity theft is no new problem in our world. It has occurred for decades and only grows more popular with criminals. Due to our world’s expanding technology, identity theft is becoming easier to commit and harder to detect. Luckily as the criminals technology becomes more advanced, so does out justice system’s technology to help fight the crime. The number of criminals that engage in the fraud and thievery will only grow due to the lucrative nature of the crime, but also will the forces that are established to stop them. This white-collar crime will gain more attention and therefore more laws will be passed to protect the public from becoming victims. With the use of laws, task forces, and the education and awareness of the public, identity theft will be given more attention and focus to hopefully deter future threats from occurring.
The primary use of stolen identities is for credit card fraud which can occur by an offender placing charges on a victim’s existing cards or by opening new accounts in his or her name. A common activity for these fraudsters is to change the billin...
III. Thesis Statement: Identity Theft is rapidly becoming a national issue because anyone of us could be a victim of identity theft. How we protect our self, keep our information private, identify any signs of identity theft, and report and repair our credit is up to each one of us. We have to be vigilant about our protecting ourselves from criminals.
Have you ever received a credit card bill at the end of the month with a ridiculous amount of money needed to be paid that you never spent? This is because of identity theft. The FTC estimates that each year, over 9 million people are affected by identity theft. According to Sally Driscoll, this is because almost anyone with a computer and a slight bit of computer knowledge can pull off identity theft. Experts also claim that identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the world. Identity theft is a global problem that cannot be stopped without effective measures. The problem is, effective measures are very hard to come by when dealing with identity theft because almost any security protocol can be by-passed.
Sullivan, C. (2009). Is identity theft really theft? International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 23(1/2), 77-87. doi:10.1080/13600860902742596
"Identity Theft and Your Financial Life." Daily Record [Baltimore] 23 Aug. 2004, Special to the Daily Record ed.: n. pag. eLibrary. Web. 6 July 2011.
Identity theft is a non ethical criminal offence. It is when someone gathers someone’s personal information and uses it against them. Fraudsters usually get a hold of personal information using three methods: information given away, offline methods and online methods. People commit this crime for many different reasons, but they all have one common goal of using some else’s identity to their advantage. There are many different type of identity thefts, which are categorized on what the criminal is using the identity for. Having said all of this, identity is a crime that can cause a lot of finical and reputation damage to the victim and that is why it is important to prevent it. Identity theft can be prevented if everybody knows exactly what it is and what they can do to keep their identity safe.
Lenard, Thomas I. “Identity Theft Is a Declining Problem.” Cyber Crime. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes.
I believe that being a victim is a state of mind and a choice. Yes, we all may be victimized, but how we choose to deal with that, is just that a choice. Having had many experiences of being victimized, I believe that I chose not to let it direct my life in a bad way. I believe that you choose to be a victim blaming that one or even more experience on why you have chosen to wrong things, such as alcohol, drugs and commit crimes. Some women have gone as far as to blame that on why they have become a prostitute.