Identity theft

820 Words2 Pages

With every day that passed, identity theft was on the rise. Common identity thefts varied from credit cards and bank frauds to identity and government document frauds. Identity theft happened when private information was inputted in online websites, retail stores, and sometimes people stealing from mailboxes or phishing on the Internet. Identity theft is a dangerous issue which causes problems such as fraud, positions personal information at risk, and permits the misuse of government documents.
Fraud was the main problem that arose when identity theft happened to an individual. The common identity theft frauds were credit card frauds, utility frauds, and frauds that usually involved banks. According to the article Identity Theft (2014), it mentioned that “Credit card fraud is one of the most common means of identity theft, accounting for about two-thirds of U.S. cases” (Para. 5). Credit card frauds usually occurred at online stores websites requesting for credit card information or devices utilized by retail store employers acquired information from the magnetic strip on the credit card. Utility frauds transpired through the access of an unsecured or unlocked mailboxes. Many utility statements had account numbers and provided online access to thefts to order unwanted products or services. Individuals had to be careful where and when to use credit cards and what time to present their personal information.
An individual’s personal information was always at risk when it came to dealing with people that practiced identity theft. Common places where people inputted personal information were at online stores, retail stores, and the most common social media. For example Facebook, Ebay, and other online websites requested personal inf...

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...red personal information to continue the registration. Identity thefts used phishing to trick people into providing additional information that gained access to unauthorized transactions. Government documents were misused by identity thefts. Mostly immigrants were the people that had falsified documents like SSN and green cards. Common security measures were to avoid exposing social security number if possible and verifying websites before inputting credit card information that could jeopardize bank accounts. Identity theft can happen to anyone so always stay protected.

Works Cited

Identity Theft. (2014). Retrieved from Global Issues in Context Online Collection database. (Accession No. CP3208520061)
Mortensen, R. W. (2009, June). Illegal, but Not Undocumented. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from Center for Immigration Studies website: http://cis.org/IdentityTheft

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