Identity Theft

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Identity Theft Identity theft happens when someone steals and uses another person’s identity to obtain resources in that persons name. This is an issue that has been going on for years. The difference today is technology. Technology has made it easier for identities of people to get stolen. Reasons behind this varies, some do it for political, financial, or social gain.There are different types of identity theft such as financial fraud, criminal activities, and computer and cyber crimes. You cannot protect yourself fully from identity theft, but there are ways to reduce your risk. According to Peter Katel, Nearly 10 million consumers are affected annually by lost or stolen data at a cost to the economy of $53 billion. Moreover, victims spend almost 300 million hours a year trying to clear their names and re-establish good credit ratings. Today’s advancement in technology makes identity theft even easier to accomplish. These days, a lot of identity verification happens with computers. Computers are fast at computation but not very good at judgment, and can be tricked. A lot of authentication happens online, with only a small amount of information: user ID, password, birth date, Social Security number, and so on. Anyone who gets that information can impersonate you to a computer, which doesn't know any better. It has become convenient for these people to do so, they can collect data from their own mobile smart phone, tablets, laptops and so on. Free wifi is available in a lot of public places. They are provided by cafes, restaurants, etc and serve as excellent places for harvesting passwords. Unprotected wifi networks, especially in public places, are most certainly a threat. This is because you are connecting to a network without k...

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...prisonment, a fine, and criminal forfeiture of any personal property used or intended to be used to commit the offense. Schemes to commit identity theft or fraud may also involve violations of other statutes such as identification fraud, credit card fraud, computer fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud , or financial institution fraud. Each of these federal offenses are felonies that carry substantial penalties in some cases, as high as 30 years of jail, fines, and criminal forfeiture. In conclusion, identity theft is a serious issue that has been going on for years and with today’s advancement in technology, it is becoming and increasing problem. You cannot completely protect yourself from your identity being stolen, but there are things you can do minimize the chances of this happening to you. Also, the government should continue to enforce laws that are much more strict.

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