Identity Theft in Dubai - Thesis Proposal Example

Identity theft as the suggests is quite different from what might be considered a "traditional" crime. In identity theft, there is no physical harm or use of weaponry against an individual when demanding for information. In this case, the objective is to use someone else's personal information stealthily and go undetected for as long as is possible. For skilled identity thieves, there are a variety of methods they use to gain access to ones' personal information. Buying IT and electronic products from unauthorized stores and distributors appears to be a popular decision among many buyers as prices may be cheaper than the authorized and reputable retail outlets. However, there are many fake and counterfeit goods which are being sold in Dubai's 'popular' shopping streets and markets. Therefore to ensure satisfaction after purchase, one needs to buy goods from genuine retailers only where products are accompanied with warranties from the manufacturers. On a macro level, consumers are duped into buying counterfeit products for a false reason that they get good bargain for the false products and that they are harmless. But this unlawful trade is hurting both the local and national economies by denying genuine businesses an opportunity to trade thereby eating into already slim margins of legitimate retailers, vendors and distributors. Money obtained from this dirty business end up funding organized crime such as terrorism and drug trafficking while thousands of locals are pushed out of their jobs because genuine manufacturers can not compete with criminals in the 'fake' making and selling business. Globally, economists estimate that up to '300 Billion (AED 2,100 Billion) worth of counterfeit goods are traded annually. Introduction Identity theft is a crime where somebody defrauds another person by pretending to be the person and uses the identity of such a person to steal money, valuables or receive undue benefits. When such a crime happens, a person whose identity has been used can suffer various consequences when held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. Identity theft, according to the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center and other sources, can be sub-divided into five categories namely:- 1. Business/commercial identity theft i.e. using another person's business name to obtain credit, 2. criminal identity theft i.e. posing as another person when apprehended for a crime, 3. financial identity theft using another's identity to obtain goods and services, 4. identity cloning i.e. using another person's information to assume his or her identity in daily life 5. Medical identity theft i.e. using another person's information to obtain medical care or drugs. Identity theft may be used to facilitate crimes including illegal immigration, terrorism, and espionage. Identity theft may also be a means of blackmail. There are also cases of identity cloning to attack payment systems, including online credit card processing and medical insurance. Some individuals may masquerade as others for non-financial motivations - for illustration, to obtain honor or consideration for the victim's accomplishments. This is sometimes known as character theft in the media. In Identity cloning and concealment, a criminal acquires personal identifiers, and then impersonates someone for the purpose of concealment from authorities. This is usually done by a person who wants to avoid arrest for crimes, is working illegally in a foreign country or is hiding from creditors or other persons. Unlike credit-dependent financial crimes, concealment can continue indefinitely without ever being detected. In such cases, the perpetrator may make the impersonation even more concealed and convincing by fraudulently obtaining documents or IDs consistent with the cloned identity. There are two main ways of financial identity theft namely:- a) Victim Established Accounts Accessed is where the perpetrator pretends to be an existing account holder and tries to obtain funds from the legitimate bank account of the victim. This where one or more identity token e.g. plastic card, paper check, deposit slip, PIN code, card number, identifying personal data, etc. is obtained and used to access funds through any of the delivery systems such as branch teller, ATM, retail cashier, telephone banking, etc. If debits i.e. withdrawals, purchases, or checks are made against the impersonated person's real accounts, that person should notify the bank that those debits are illegitimate and request reversal. It is also possible at the extreme for the perpetrator to take over control of the account by rerouting statements to a new address. This is called "account takeover" and exposes the account to rapid abuse. b) Perpetrator Established Accounts where the perpetrator establishes new accounts using someone else's identity or a made-up identity. The intention is to utilize someone else's good credit history to obtain funds (credit cards or loans) or checking account to be over drafted. An example of a bank fraud or credit-dependent financial crime occurs when a perpetrator secures a loan from a financial institution through impersonation of someone else. The criminal pretending to be the victim presents accurate information about the victim which may include correct name, address, date of birth, or any other information as may be required by the lender as a means of establishing identity. Such information will always be found to be true even if checked against the data at a national consumer reporting agency and the lender will encounter no concerns as all of the victim's information matches the records. The lender will not easily discover that this is a case of impersonation unless some form of verification is done by the help of a Government issued ID. Such verification may not be possible with online, mail, telephone, and fax-based transactions. This is a non-self-revealing crime, although it is possible for the authorities to track down the criminal if the funds for the loan were mailed to them. The perpetrator keeps the money from the loan and never repays back to the financial institution is never repaid, and the victim is wrongly blamed for defaulting on a loan he/she never authorized. Medical identity theft occurs when someone uses a person's name and sometimes other parts of their identity -- such as insurance information -- without the person's knowledge or consent to obtain medical services or goods, or uses the person's identity information to make false claims for medical services or goods. Medical identity theft frequently results in erroneous entries being put into existing medical records, and can involve the creation of fictitious medical records in the victim's name. Owing to speedy expansion of the economy and the populace over the past few years in the UAE, the leadership has articulated strong determination to enhance the performance of public disciplines as well as enhanced proficiency, with a view to enhancing the synchronization of the citizen's admittance to public services. The scheme that commenced in June 2003, geared to developing a contemporary distinctiveness administration structure with two deliberate aims addressing security as well as monetary demands. The security objective develops around necessity of the government to have an integrated regime for the purpose of populace identification as well as service liberation. By using the indispensable expertise, the project develops a trusted and robust identity verification system to enhance homeland security as well as assist the regime in safeguarding person against the ever burgeoning felony of identity theft. The subsequent tactical objective of the proposal advances around supporting the hegemony's monetary. One of the central needs in this objective is to enhance the nation's digital fiscal portfolio by constructing a national e-authentication infrastructure that ought to become the basis and the backbone for e-government services as well as e-commerce initiatives. Alongside having a centralized and interconnected population register will help in scheming as well as making good use of reserves as it should present timely, precise, and statistical data for strategic decision making the long term planning with regard to education, healthcare, town sketching, haulage needs, power, etc. An additional side of this aims to amalgamate mainstream cards in the country; this includes driving license, labor card, fitness card, and extra prerogative cards. This will have a philosophical impact on the fiscal of scale in the management and building costs of such licenses. The increase in a series of deceitful ATM pulling outs in the UAE has ignited uncertainties over a wigwag of personality theft that is happening. With so many Britons resorting, working and staying in the UAE than it has been the culture, UK cardholders could be vulnerable to card fraud attacks while abroad. The Middle East could present effortless prospects for card fraudsters owing to the applicability of ATMs that still acknowledges a card by its charismatic shred. An up-to-date expression from card switch expertise underlined how disciplines such as retailers as well as banks could play a key responsibility in conquering card misdemeanor. The rampage in card related fraud on a global scale is a concern and cardholders need to be wary of this cancer. On the other hand it is imperative that monetary institutions ought to act fast with respect to the electronic gang ho syndrome and instead allow cardholders to actively participate in the security as well as authorization of their own cards enabling them to organize disbursement of funds that banks are doing on their behalf. In the UK for instance, Card fraud can be precluded when merchants take the initiative to verify a cardholder in the event of any transaction although cross border and card not accessible fraud remains a subject matter. Cyber bandits are forever targeting the UAE Ministry of Education by establishing fake website to entice teachers to apply for employment positions that are non existent. This consists of ESL-Library.com as well as TopSchoolJobs.com that have been inviting candidates to apply for ESL teaching positions at the bogus UAE Education Studies, a latest established edifice accessible at Box 295 Dubai. The institution claims to be offering a one year contract with monthly stipends of more than AED 16,000 ($4,400) with lodging, engrossed aspirants are requested to email their essentials to a factitious email account. The factitious domain is itp.net appears so identical to the Ministry's authentic website with meticulous logos, illustrations, news, consultation as well as descriptions. Regardless of the palpable security intimidation it potent, no one at the Ministry of Education has been on the forefront to comment about the same. Phishing scam has been so outrageous an activity in the UAE, impeccable sources strongly concur that a teacher from the US had applied for a position through a fictitious UAE Ministry of Labor known as www.uaeministryoflabour.tk , however the same teacher became apprehensive when a fee to process the visa was demanded. However the ministry of education speedily moved into battle releasing a statement that confirmed that unscrupulous individuals superimposed as genuine human resource recruiters in bid to establishing contact with local as well as foreign applicants, especially in the fields of employment, the website was however blocked. In the two concurrences, the website have the suffic.tk- the cataloged domain of pacific isle Tokelau, that enhances the domain to be employed by Dot TK, an Amsterdam centered free domain registration service. Various monetary institution operating in the EAU have been advised to alter the security pin codes; this includes Citibank, Dubai Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC, Lloyds, TSB as well the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). The suggestion follow reports of the increased rise in the number of fraudulent transactions made from ATMs in diverse nations. In actual fact, the belief is that criminals have been able to steal card details and PIN numbers of bank clients in the UAE, made counterfeit cards, and then employed to withdraw money in different countries like Kuala Lumpur and Philippines respectively. The inconsistency of information with regard to how the tricksters access PIN code information has always been a phantom, and this has upset most monetary institutions in the recent past although banks are now taking the initiative to warn their clients in taking preventative steps. Myriad monetary institutions have been issuing text messages to their clients in the region to be weary of the menace. However, claims have indicated that banks have caused even more panic to their clients. HSBC for example told punters to alter their PINs by certain duration of time or risk having their ATM card nullified. Elongated queues have been said to be building at ATMs in divergent banks as persons rushed to alter their defense regulations. References: Oklahoma University Police Department. "Identity Theft - Part 1 - 1) Introduction to Identity Theft - The Police Notebook" 18 October 2004. URL: http://www.ou.edu/oupd/idtheft.htm Encyclopedia.com URL: 2) http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/i1/identthft.asp Howstuffworks. "How Identity Theft Works" URL: 3) http://computer.howstuffworks.com/identity-theft.htm Federal Trade Commission October 2003. URL: 4) http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheftmini.htm Everett, Cath. "Identity Theft: How You can Protect and Survive" 5) Computeractive 18 June 2004. URL: http://www.computeractive.co.uk/features/1156002 Kawamoto, Dawn. "Wells Fargo Computers Stolen" ZDNet 3 November 6) 2004 URL: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5437481.html Read More