Online Identity Theft: The Crime of the Future - Essay Example

In the course of a busy and hectic day - an extremely common event for most Americans - many forms of personal information handouts take place; writing a check at the grocery store, charging tickets to a baseball game, renting a car, mailing your tax returns, changing service providers for your cell phone, applying for a credit card, or even something seemingly simple such as filling out an online questionnaire - all these things are possible stepping stones to having your identity stolen. Chances are that you do not take any of these things too seriously, but an online identity thief does.

People whose identity has been stolen will often admit that their life has been completely altered, even ruined. Online identity theft is a serious crime. Victims can spend months, even years, and enormous amounts of money trying to clean up the mess that was left of their life after an identity thief conned their way into taking their finances and ruining their credit. They (victims) may be put through humiliating and traumatizing experiences due to the repercussions of this crime, ranging from being unconsidered for job opportunities to refusal of loans for education, to even getting arrested for crimes they did not commit.

Whether it's the financial side of things or the emotional, one thing is for sure: Online identity theft is a serious crisis. Key questions must be discussed when attempting to solve this crisis, such as: what electronic identity theft is and what the problems are associated with it; why electronic identity theft has been possible; and prevention methods (those previously used, those presently in use, and those of the future). Electronic identity theft (or online theft), is literally defined as the "practice of pretending to be someone else on the Internet.

" ("Wikipedia", 2005). The repercussions left on the victim can range from seemingly harmless to completely life-altering. Identity theft is the "deliberate assumption of another person's identity, usually to gain access to their credit or frame them for some crime." ("Criminal", 2005). In order to truly understand the crime of online identity theft, the following points must be thoroughly discussed: What electronic/online identity theft is What the problems are that are associated with online identity theft, and why it has been possible What the prevention methods - past, present, and future - are, and how they have (or how they will) work to deter against the surging epidemical crime of online identity theft.

Identity theft occurs when somebody steals your name for fraudulent purposes. Once this criminal has assumed your identity activity is usually undertaken such as opening and closing bank accounts as if you were authorizing it. Identity theft is a form of identity crime (where somebody uses a false identity to commit a crime) however it has the added problem that reputations will be damaged even after the criminal is caught. A victim may have to spend time and money to restore his/her name. (The Australian Internet Safety Advisory Body)Within the past twelve months alone, "over 9.

3 million American adults became victims of identity fraud." (Williams, 2005).