Why Is Identity Theft Wrong

In society today, pickpocketing and dumpster diving aren’t the only ways people are stealing identity, but now they are using the internet to steal and catfish people. When people use these techniques to obscure their identities it is wrong in any situation for many reasons, one being that it is deceitful. Deceitful is defined as having the tendency or disposition to give false impressions (Merriam-Webster). In these instances people are lying about their original identity while using another person’s personal information to become that person, in most cases for money purposes. With the rise of technology and social media, people are now using others information or falsifying their own information in order to create a new identity for themselves.

That means that each year almost 12 million people have their identity stolen by these thieves. The thieves then use the stolen information to lie about who they are in order to obtain items they couldn’t acquire using their own name (“Identity Theft”). One reason that it is wrong for someone to obscure their identity in the instance of identity theft is simply because it is illegal. When someone uses another person’s identity or writes down someone’s personal information with the intent to use it they are breaking the law. There are a variety of different punishments for this including incarceration ranging from a year to several years, fines that could potentially exceed over $5000, restitution, or probation ranging from a year to three or more (Theoharis). In regards to legal issues dealing with identity theft, sometimes the victim ends up paying the price. One instance of this was in the case of a man named Malcom Bryd. A man used his identity and then racked up a criminal record including traffic violations, drug possession and drug distributing. Bryd has been arrested multiple times for crimes he didn’t commit and has been dealing with the identity theft since 1998 (Sullivan). Not only is it wrong to falsely impersonate someone because it is illegal, but it is also wrong because the victim could then be falsely accused of crimes they didn’t