The Increase Of Identity Theft And Cyber Crime

Identity theft is intentionally use of someone else’s identity, usually as a method to gain financial, credit, or any other sort of benefits in his/her name. The victim of Identity theft could possibly suffer serious consequences especially if they get left held responsible for the perpetrator’s actions. Identity theft happens when someone else uses another person's Identifying information including their name, credit card information or I.D number without the owner’s knowledge or permission. The term Identity theft was brought up in 1964, since then Identity theft has been very big in the U.K. and the United States with victim’s credit card numbers, PIN numbers, electronic signatures, passwords, fingerprints and many much more financial resources stolen.

Knowing the link between data breaches and identity theft is very difficult because the identity theft victims don’t know how their information was stolen according to FTC (Federal Trade Commission). A recent study from Carnegie Mellon University said, “Most causes of identity theft is unknown.'' Someone else has reported that “the chance of becoming an identity theft victim is 2%”. Recently, an association of consumer data companies wrote down that one of the largest data breaches ever to be counted for was more over than four million records which 1,800 instances of identity fraud according to the companies which were breached. An article from 2010 “Cyber Crime Made Easy” goes into detail explaining the hackers are using heavy software. Gunter Ollmann, the Chief Technology Officer of security at Microsoft said that “Interested in credit card theft? There's an app for that” it is summing up ease which hackers are accessing a bunch of stuff online. An app called Zeus was infecting computers, it can easily be hacked which hackers can operate and take full control. The app Zeus can put really bad damage on the computer and the person who is using it. For example, this article said that apps can steal all your information such as homeland security. If the thief got ahold of this information, it could be as a result of a terrorist attack or even identity theft. The ITAC says “15 million Americans are having Identity stolen, in 2012”.

Identity theft could be used to easy its way in other crimes including terrisom, phishing and immigration. There have been a couple cases of a version of identity theft called cloning, it is attack payment systems, such as medical insurance and online credit card processing. In this scenario the hacker moves on to another victim in order to keep their Identity. For example, immigrants that are hiding what their illegal status, other individuals and the ones who become “Anonymous” for certain reasons. One example is hackers that uses somebody’s else's photo and information on networking sites, or even people that pose. Posers are often good at making people believe stories that involves their friends of the actual person they are trying to intimidate. When a criminal falsely identifying themselves to authorities as another individual at the arresting point, it is most often referred to as a “Criminal Identity Theft”. Some of the cases that have been brought up are that the theft will often times present identity documents that have been stolen from the victim or they will show a fake ID. Often times the charges will be charged to the victim’s name, while the criminal is getting left off the hook. Some examples are by receiving a court notice, driver's license is suspended for a small traffic stop, or background checks for a job.

It could be very difficult to get those consequences off the victim’s record. The court would have to view the victim's incorrect criminal record and judge it based if they are telling the truth or not. Often times the victim will track down the arresting officer and prove their true identity and prove their innocence. The officer can do a variety of tests such as fingerprints or DNA testing, once that is approved the victim will have to go to court to be cleared from the charges. Authorities will most likely will put the victim’s name as an alias for thefts true identity in their criminal record. One of the problems the victim might be facing is that data errors might still have the incorrect criminal record for them. This is one of many problems that victims have to continue to deal with for several months or years.

Pam Dixon, who is a private researcher and the founder of the World Privacy Forum. She pointed to the term medical identity theft and released the very first major report about this situation in 2006. In her report, she went into detail on the crime that was being committed for the first time and made it very difficult for the victim’s public profile. The reports quote on crime act is “medical identity theft happens when a criminal gets medical care under the victim’s identity.” Insurance theft is also one of the major ones, if someone gets ahold of your insurance information or even your insurance card and they can go in like they are the victims. It can cause major decline and put you in financial harm. The thief’s history visits will most likely pop up on the victim’s record. Inappropriate and falsely information in the victim’s files is hard to change and could possibly affect future visits. After the report came out it recommended that consumers should receive some notification of the medical data that is being breached by hackers. California has had a law passed requiring this, and lastly HIPAA has been expanded that requires a notification when it is being breached and affects more than 500 or more people. All the data that’s collected by the hospitals or other organizations excluding medical schemes is higher rate for cyber criminals than credit card information.

One of the big ones out of identity theft is tax identity theft. Tax identity theft happens when a person uses someone else's information to get or receive a tax refund. The thief could also obtain a job and then their employer will report the actual income of the real taxpayer. The taxpayer could then get in trouble with the IRS. The IRS has a form that will help fight against theft just like tax theft. The form will put the IRS on high alert and someone who thinks they are being a victim of theft will be given an IPPIN (Identity Protection Personal Identification Number). It is a six-digit code that replaces your SSN for tax returns.

The high increase of crimes being committed of identity theft has been led to the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. The Federal Trade Commission has appeared before the US Senate in 1998. The FTC has discussed crimes exposed consumer credit to commit loan fraud, lines of credit fraud, mortgage fraud. The Identity Theft Deterrence Act has amended that the statue now must make the possession of any sort of means of identification. It is a federal crime, and alongside of unlawful possession of identification documents. For federal jurisdiction to prosecute, the crime must have included an identification document that either has sent through the mail, or it is used in a manner where it affects interstate or foreign commerce. The punishment for this can be up to 15, 13 years in federal prison. In addition, punishments for unlawful use of means of identity has been strengthened in allowing for a sentence under specific felony violations.