Identity Theft

Abstract

Identity theft is a white-collar crime. Every year in the world about millions of dollars of loss is being suffered by organizations and the individuals because of the substantial existence of identity theft crime. This research paper highlights the ways in which this crime can be committed by the fraudsters, its existing types, statistics of the victims, the magnitude of this crime and its direct and indirect cost towards the businesses and individuals. Some recommendations have been provided to educate the individuals and organizations to get them protected from being victimized.

Introduction

The term identity can be defined as characteristic that distinguishes one individual from another. The identity theft is a crime which involves illegal means of attaining and making use of someone's personal data for the purpose of committing any fraud. Identity theft offender can be defined as:

“Anyone who knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful authority, any name or number that may be used, alone or in conjunction with any other information, to identify a specific individual with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law”. (U.S. Public Law 105-318, 1998)

Identity theft was a little conserved fact in the previous days but in a very short amount of time it has become a substantial problem.

Types of Identity Theft

Identity theft can be categorized in several ways. The two main types of identity theft are:

Personal identity theft

Business identity theft

Personal Identity Theft

This makes use of the personal identifying information of an individual without his or her knowledge to service any illicit activity such as the deceitfully attaining of money, services, commodities and/or credit. A person is distinguished from all other people on the basis of personal identifying information which is not restricted to the person's name, date of birth, email-address etc. A complete identity take over is the most awful form of the identity theft which occurs when a thief steals the most important piece of the personal identifying information and uses it for controlling every attribute of the victim's life. (Hoffman, et.al, 2010)

Business Identity Theft

Identities of businesses are also stolen by thieves. An illegal use of business identifier is involved in the business identity theft. A business is distinguished from all others on the basis of business identifying information. ...