Online Fraud and Identity Theft
Introduction:
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes statistically according to the Federal Trade Commission. Roughly 27.3 million Americans have fallen victim to this form of theft/fraud. According to last year the loss of money for businesses and financial institutions are in the billions and with consumers out of pocket expenses has been about 5 billion dollars. "Identity theft" refers to crimes in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data (i.e., name, date of birth, social security number, driver's license number, and your financial identity— credit card, bank account and phone-card numbers) in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain (to obtain money or goods/services). There are a few ways that people are able to obtain such information and some of the ways you will find that it is out of your control if you do not protect yourself. A few of the forms in which predators are able to easily extract your information and use it while damaging your life and credit. Some are done from people internally stealing business records of their personal information. Other means from what they call shoulder surfing. This is an easy way where someone is standing behind you at your desk while you are trying to visit a site that is personal. They are able to look at your keyboard and remember your login and passwords. Another big one would be dumpster diving. People do not realize that just by simply not shredding your personal information and just tossing it in the garbage people will go through your garbage to collect information about yourself. Once your trash can is at the end of your driveway this is now considered public property. Another means is to deceive the victim through the means of posing as someone else to obtain information such as a landlord or even posing as an employer trying to get your personal information. Another one would be from what they call skimming. This is done by stealing
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes statistically according to the Federal Trade Commission. Roughly 27.3 million Americans have fallen victim to this form of theft/fraud. According to last year the loss of money for businesses and financial institutions are in the billions and with consumers out of pocket expenses has been about 5 billion dollars. "Identity theft" refers to crimes in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data (i.e., name, date of birth, social security number, driver's license number, and your financial identity— credit card, bank account and phone-card numbers) in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain (to obtain money or goods/services). There are a few ways that people are able to obtain such information and some of the ways you will find that it is out of your control if you do not protect yourself. A few of the forms in which predators are able to easily extract your information and use it while damaging your life and credit. Some are done from people internally stealing business records of their personal information. Other means from what they call shoulder surfing. This is an easy way where someone is standing behind you at your desk while you are trying to visit a site that is personal. They are able to look at your keyboard and remember your login and passwords. Another big one would be dumpster diving. People do not realize that just by simply not shredding your personal information and just tossing it in the garbage people will go through your garbage to collect information about yourself. Once your trash can is at the end of your driveway this is now considered public property. Another means is to deceive the victim through the means of posing as someone else to obtain information such as a landlord or even posing as an employer trying to get your personal information. Another one would be from what they call skimming. This is done by stealing