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Identity Theft Penalty Act

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IDENTITY THEFT PENALTY ENHANCEMENT ACT

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Introduction
The Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act is an amendment to Title 18 of the United States Code. The Act was brought in to define and establish penalties for aggravated identity theft. It is also an enhancement of the definitions of identity theft found in the provisions of Title 18 (Congress.gov, 2004) (Finklea, 2014). Identity theft is an issue that has affected the nation for many years. Advances in technology have made it possible for many people to have access to the tools and resources needed to forge documents which are a critical part of identity theft. The most common form of identity theft is associated with credit card fraud. Credit card fraud on the internet has substantially increased due to the opportunities present in the Internet environment. However, this represents some of the simplest forms of identity fraud. Such is the case since it is very easy to discover credit card fraud by both the credit card company and the victim as well. However, according to the Federal Trade Commission (2002), other forms of identity theft are more severe since they take a longer time to materialize (Federal Trade Commission, 2002) This view is also by Finklea (2014) in his article where he points out the issues and trends of identity theft.
The Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act comes in the context of increased awareness of the difficulties posed by emergent technologies. So far, identity theft has been found to involve three main stages. The first of this involves the acquisition of the identity. In this process, one gets to assume the identity of another person through computer hacking, theft, fraud, force, trickery as well as interception or re-directing of mail (Congress.gov, 2004). Acquisition of another identity can also occur through legal means as seen in the purchase

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