...Identity Theft Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. Every minute about nine people have their identity stolen. (Identity Theft and Identity Fraud, 2013). Identity theft can happen to anyone at any time. A consumer can protect themselves without having to purchase a protection program. Protection programs are available to help consumers protect their identity. An identity theft program isn’t the best protection against identity theft. There are a number of protection plan companies a consumer can choose from. Each company has their own plans to choose from and each have different rates. A consumer can review the ratings of each company also. When a consumer has a protection program there are some advantages. These programs review the client’s credit reports with credit monitoring. When a consumer purchases a protection program, fraud insurance is granted to the consumer. This insurance covers a few areas. The insurance will cover all legal services endured by the consumer, it covers all out-of-pocket services that the consumer pays out, and some of the companies offer a private investigator and assigns them to help with the claim. There are a number of disadvantages to having a protection program. These programs will not prevent identity theft. In order for a consumer to get a protection plan, they must pay a monthly/yearly fee for the program. If a consumer’s identity is stolen, the consumer will not be reimbursed for any money that has...
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...Easy Measures for Increasing Identity Theft Protection Introduction Imagine getting ready to purchase a home. Your family has outgrown the house you are currently living in, and a bigger home would be a perfect fit for your family. Since you have owned your home for many years and made your payments on time (along with your other bills), you feel applying for a home loan will be easy. With banks offering lower interest rates and trying to obtain business from customers, now is the time (you feel) to apply for a home loan. You walk into the bank and meet with the local loan officer. After explaining your financial and work situation, the loan officer provides an interest rate and term on a home loan. You find the home loan favorable and wish to proceed with the home loan. The loan officer is happy to proceed and explains that a credit report will need to be pulled. You agree to have your credit report pulled, as you feel your credit score is in good shape. The loan officer pulls your credit report and you see a look of concern come across his face. The loan officer prints your credit report and proceeds to tell you that due to your high debt, failure to make payments, and low credit score; the bank cannot offer you a loan. You now have this look of horror on your face as you do not know how you have late payments, your debt is high, and your credit score is low. You ask to see your credit report. When you review the credit report, you realize these unpaid, high-balance...
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...headquartered in Stamford, CT; however, its services are available to all U.S. residents except for those in the states of Iowa, Rhode Island, and Vermont. PrivacyGuard is an identity theft monitoring company that provides a variety of credit monitoring services. [the-good] • Three Credit Bureau Monitoring and Reporting • Daily Credit Monitoring With Alert Notifications • Personal Resolution Expert Provided • Identity Theft Protection Included • Credit Score Simulator • Credit Education Information [h3]Three Credit Bureau Monitoring and Reporting[/h3] PrivacyGuard offers fast and secure access to all...
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...Aug 26, 2013 Research Paper: Identity Theft Identity theft, also known as ID theft is a crime in which a criminal obtains key pieces of personal information, such as Social Security or driver's license numbers, in order to pretend to be someone else. The information can be used to obtain credit, merchandise, and services using the victims’ name. Identity theft can also provide a thief with false credentials for immigration or other applications. One of the biggest problems with identity theft is that very often the crimes committed by the identity theft expert are often credited to the victim. A thief could take out a mortgage in your name or commit a crime and pretend to be you when caught. Thieves can even use your personal information to apply for a job or use your medical insurance. Identity theft has become one of the world’s leading crimes in the world. Identity theft drastically increased in the year 2000 by nearly 52%, occurring every half second all across the world. There are two primary types of identity theft: ~Account takeover ~True name theft Account takeover identity theft refers to the type of situation where an imposter uses the stolen personal information to gain access to the person’s existing accounts. Often the identity thief will use the stolen identity to run up current credit lines, by changing your address so that you never see the credit card bills that the thief constantly runs up. True name identity theft means that the thief uses personal...
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...Ethics in Information Technology LifeLock helps to protect identity using several different methods. They start with their proprietary LifeLock Identity alert technology, which uses unique data sources to provide a broader range of protection than just credit report monitoring. We'll be alerted if any suspicious activity is found, such as if our personal information like social security, bank account number, home address is being used to open new credit cards, wireless services, retail credits loans, non-credit related payday loans and auto loans. Alerts are sent via email or phone. Online account will also be updated with any alert information. Next LifeLock adds scanning of the Internet's black markets for any use of credit card numbers, driver's license, Social Security number and email, alert if personal information is found. LifeLock's guarantee applies to both their LifeLock and LifeLock Ultimate products, and is one of the best out of any of the top companies for identity protection. They guarantee good name up to $1 million if identity is ever stolen. While this guarantee is great, direct monetary losses from identity theft are almost always much smaller since person is not legally responsible for paying any fraudulent debt a thief accumulated. The real cost of identity theft is the loss of ability to get credit for an extended period of time, the time and effort it takes to restore good name, and many other adverse consequences that can even include any mistaken. The...
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...Ricardo Hernandez SS3150 ITT Holly Hale-Hang, MAEd March 5, 2014 One person should also carry a current amount of credit card in there wallet, everything else should put inside a safe. Always monitor the bank statement and etc. Checking the mail for missing account statements is another way to protect from identity theft and fraud. If someone going on vacation that person should ask the post office to hold all their mail until that person came back, to prevent identity theft and frauds. People should invest in a shredder to shred unwanted information. Use a secure website to access information, never enclose personal information by the phone. Check bank statement and credit card statement very careful each month to see any unwanted purchase. If that person sees any unwanted purchase notices their credit card immediately. Thesis: One day you receive a call from your bank, stating you had just made a purchase for a random estimate of 5,000 dollars. But you did not go on a shopping spree. Your identity just has stolen. How secure is your identity? Do you ever wonder about your identity? Ways to prevent/protect yourself from identity theft and frauds. I. One thing you should be aware about is your bank account. A. Once your ATM has been compromises change your pin right away. B. Get new ATM cards if it has been compromised. C. Contact the bank if you see any suspense in your bank account. I. Another way is keeping your social security secure in a...
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...Avoiding Identity Theft Gary Lee Kaplan University CM 220 Kelley Gordon Avoiding Identity Theft Ben Franklin once said “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” Well this has never been truer than in today’s hi-tech society where our personal information flows freely over the internet. Identity theft has become a wide-spread crime committed by thieves who use stolen personal information to commit various types of fraud. Simply put, identity theft is a crime that takes your personal information and uses it to open unauthorized accounts, make purchases and acquire loans without the victim’s knowledge. So in order to protect against identity theft citizens should understand how identity thieves work, guard their personal information, and learn what measures to take if this does happen to them. No one is safe from identity theft but the elderly are especially vulnerable. Americans over the age of 60 are the fastest growing segment of computer and Internet users today. And according to the FBI, they are also the targets of identity theft more often than anyone else (FBI, 2011). Identity thieves target senior citizens because they don't regularly check credit-card statements, review credit reports or monitor their bank statements. Identity theft can be broken down into two separate categories (Identity Theft & Identity Fraud) since it is actually a two part crime. Identity theft is the actual act of obtaining personal information...
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...Identity Theft I know three people who have been affected by identity theft in the past. They were forced to deal with the hassle of clearing and repairing their good names and financial reputations. According to my research, there was a new victim of identity theft in the U.S. every two seconds within the last year and over 9 million Americans reported that their identity had been stolen (Rogers, 2014). The primary complaint on the Federal Trade Commission’s list of top consumer complaints is identity theft (Trowbridge, 2014). This crime has gone from actions like rooting through a person’s trash and stealing their mail to confidence scams to gain access to personal information. With the possibilities that are provided by the internet criminals are capable of gaining access to and stealing personal information from a larger pool of prospective victims from all across the world. What is Identity Theft? According to Merriam-Webster, identity theft is “the illegal use of someone else's personal information (as a Social Security number) especially in order to obtain money or credit” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). Some of the items that a person would utilize to steal another person’s identity are Social Security Numbers, driver's license numbers or their date of birth just to name a few of the pieces of information. The thief can take this information and use it to obtain things such as credit cards, bank accounts, auto loans, and home mortgages in the victim’s name. Some...
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...Identity Theft: Fastest Growing Crime Tracy A. Baggett DeVry University Keller Graduate School of Management Identity Theft; Fastest Growing Crime Imagine waking up to news that you had accumulated hundreds of thousands in debt after someone used your identity for unauthorized purchases. This is exactly what happened to John Harrison, a Connecticut salesman. Jerry Phillips, the twenty year old who stole John Harrison’s identity went on a shopping spree that included purchases to Home Depot, JC Penny, Sears, Lowes and even bought two cars from Ford, a Kawasaki and a Harley. In just four months Jerry Phillips was able to accumulate $ 265,000 in purchases. Jerry Phillips was later arrested and imprisoned for three years. He even went as far as to apologize to John Harrison saying, “Sorry. You know, I wish I could make it up to you.” John Harrison felt that the nightmare was over with the criminal behind bars and even verbally acknowledging his regret over the crime. But despite all of this and a letter from the Justice Department confirming that John Harrison was a victim, he still found himself owing $140,000 to different creditors. How about waking up in the middle of the night realizing that federal agents just entered your home with guns pointed certainly qualifies as one of the most horrifying ordeals in anyone’s life. This is exactly what happened to Carlos Gomez, a UPS driver accused of being involved in a million dollar money laundering operation headed by a Wachovia...
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....1 2. Theory and Concept……………………………………………………….…. .3 3. Key Findings……………………………………………………………………..4 3.1 Issues of Online Identity Theft …………………………………………...4 3.2 Trends of Online Identity Theft……………………………………………5 4. Case Study………………………………………………………………………..7 4.1 Background…………………………………………………………………..8 4.2 Analysis……………………………………………………………………….8 5. Recommendations and Conclusions……………………………………..…9 Executive Summary Identity theft make a lot of customers and organisations suffer serious loss both financially and emotionally. It is necessary to build acknowledge of identity theft to protect the interest of customers and organisations. This report finds the different methods and trends of identity theft and gives some advices for protection. A case study of TJX breach case shows the harm of identity theft in an organisation. 1. Introduction The internet technology has greatly changed the world in which human live since 1990s. Nowadays, internet has gone deep into people’s daily life and its high productivity, efficiency and convince make people deeply rely on it. Online business and social network have become the most important contributions of internet. As the growth of e-commerce and number of users of social networking websites, the target of identity theft has broadened. In e-commerce, identity theft threats not only the customers’ information and property safety but also the interest of corporate. On the social networking...
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...How Identity Theft Affect the Culture of our Society Sections I, II, III and IV Rodrekus Baskin DeVry University How Identity Fraud and Theft Impact the Culture of Our Society Section I Identity theft affects millions of Americans every day. Scam artists and hackers lay in wait for an unsuspecting person to get caught up their scheme through ignorance or naivety so they can take full advantage of their personal information to do as they desire with it. Problem is, it infiltrates and depreciates the integral infrastructure of our society which creates a cultural lapse through the declination of economic and cultural growth and double jeopardizes an already unstable system to the brink of its destruction. To understand how identity theft works or happens, one need to know and understand what identity theft is, the different forms of identity theft, cyber security and the impact on its victims, the methods used by identity thieves to obtain identifying information about their victims, and preventive solutions. How Identity Theft Affect the Culture of Our Society A single mother looking forward to advancing her financial situation comes across what appears to be the opportunity she has been waiting for. A real estate agent has provided her with the fortune of owning her own home and without skepticism of any impending dangers or foul play, even though he displayed what appeared to be proper credentials, she relinquished all of her personal data...
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...bills on time, when you use your credit card you pay the balance off when you are supposed to; even more than the minimum payments, and then when you try and go buy a car or a house you are declined due to bad credit. Ever wonder how that can be? Well you might have been a victim of identity theft. What is identity theft you ask? It is a form of fraud or cheating of another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name. According to the national association of the attorneys general, “Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation with an estimated 700,000 victims each year and after the victim discovers their theft, they spend an average of 808 dollars to clear up the discrepancies along with 175 hours approx. Restoring their reputation by means of notifying the credit bureaus, cancelling cards, and negotiating with creditors (2006.) Currently those numbers are now even higher at 1,495 dollars in expenses and 609 hours to clean up credit”. Identity theft happens all the time. This is partly caused because of who you trust and what you put on the internet. In the paragraphs to come we will get into the types and stages of identity theft, who it affects and how you can protect yourself. According to the NIJ (National Institute of Justice), there are seven broad types of identity theft and three stages. The Seven stages...
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...Consumer Protection December 14, 2006 Internet Fraud: An Overview of Classifications, Governmental Actions, and Consumer Protection Internet fraud is an increasing threat to our technological society, which thrives on the advances and benefits of the Internet and e-commerce. With the increased growth and dependence of the Internet, creative individuals have found ways of conveying fraudulent schemes as legitimate goods and services. Not only does Internet fraud cause harm to individuals and institutions, but it also damages the consumer confidence of valid Internet businesses and e-commerce. There are many forms of Internet fraud which Internet patrons need to be aware of and cognizant of. This paper will explore major classifications of Internet fraud, provide information on how to deal with Internet fraud, relay actions taken by the government to thwart Internet fraud and prosecution thereof, and also take a detailed look into one type of Internet fraud especially, identity theft. According to the Department of Justice (http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/text/Internet.htm), Internet fraud is any type of criminal scheme that uses one or more components of the Internet to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions. Major types include; online action and retail scams, business opportunities or work-at-home scams, investment schemes, phishing, and identity theft...
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...Protection Against Identity Theft Identity theft is a crime that can easily ruin one’s life and cause extreme suffering and loss. Criminals have been using other people’s identity since the beginning of time to commit crimes, achieve financial gain, and for many other illegal purposes. Since the rise in the popularity of the Internet, identity theft has also been on the rise. “Approximately 15 million United States residents have their identities used fraudulently each year with financial losses totaling upwards of $50 billion.” (Douglas, 2012) By securing someone else’s personally identifiable information (PII), a criminal with enough knowledge about the Internet could illegally gain access to medical records, bank accounts, and many other aspects of the unknowing victim’s life. This is why protecting one’s personally identifiable information is paramount in avoiding identity theft. There are many methods criminals can use to acquire PII but there are many ways one can protect their information as well. It is easier to protect PII by practicing several simple habits rather than forfeiting time, effort, and potentially large sums of money after one’s identity has been compromised. The United States Department of Justice suggests several easy tips to help avoid becoming a victim of identity theft. Individuals should be stingy about releasing their PII to anyone they do not know or trust. (Identity Theft And Identity Fraud, 2014) It is common to receive phone calls...
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...the centuries, the term ‘identity theft’ has meant many things. People have pretended to be other when committing crimes to avoid sentencing. Identities have been stolen in order to obtain certain medical care or drugs that would be unavailable otherwise. In this day and age, identity theft has become synonymous with finances. Thieves all over the world are using various methods to gain access to your money; and they’re more successful at it now than ever before. According to a 2013 Javelin report, 13.1 million people in the United States suffered financially because of identity fraud. According to multiple reports, that number is expected to rise in 2014 and beyond. As we get smarter about how financial identity theft is committed, criminals become smarter about gaining our sensitive information. When we became good about shredding old credits cards and bank statements, they used e-mail and phone schemes to coax us into giving our information to them. Companies invest millions of dollars into new technologies meant to keep criminals out of databases, and criminals simply bypass these obstacles with combinations of cutting-edge and archaic techniques. It’s a vicious cycle that seems to have no end. So how can we as consumers protect ourselves from these identity thieves? Consumers must take a more active role in their financial lives, especially when it comes to online transactions. People often rely on stores and banks to protect their identities online. This is a huge mistake...
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