Leaking Identifying Information - Essay Example

Identity theft refers to a situation where an individual impersonates another person's information of identity without his or her consent and uses the information to commit a crime. The identifying information that is of concern in identity theft can be another person’s name, credit card number, or any other personal information, which can be used to commit a crime. This kind of theft is very hard to classify, as criminals do not have a criminal background as it is done by people with little criminal records, mostly they are people close to the victim such as family members, employees as well fellow workmates (Schmalleger, 1998). Sometimes small gangs of people come together to create lies about someone or form false documents, which they will use to commit fraud. Due to the increased levels of insecurity, the gangs have started using different techniques to get information by using computers or internet-related activities to acquire the information. Identity thieves use personal information, such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, and home addresses, to open new accounts in the victim's name, make changes and then disappear. While this type of identity theft is less likely to occur, it imposes much greater costs and hardships on victims.

Identity thieves also steal the credit and debit card information of the victim by using a device that records this information when processing their bills. Other identity thieves present themselves as financial institutions, which will ask the victim for their personal information over the internet, and if the victim is not aware, they may end up giving up crucial information, which the thieves will use to steal. Other identity thieves pilfer wallets containing personal information and use it to steal from their victims.
Identity thieves may also get records from the personnel offices or bribe workers to get the personal information of a potential victim, which they will then use to pay for their expenses. Other identity thieves commit their crimes by using false identities on financial institutions or any other source of information, which may have the personal information of a potential victim, and use the information they get to steal from the victims. To deal with identity theft, people need to be aware that it exists and know how to protect themselves from it. People should monitor their information regularly to notice any irregularities and inform the necessary authority such as the police so that they can conduct investigations. If the investigations are successful, the culprits will be caught and the issue can be resolved.
The federal government started an initiative in 2006 to combat identity theft by involving the public in their activities to catch identity thieves. To reduce the impact of identity theft everybody needs to know that they exist through public awareness campaigns, assisting the victims, coming up with legislation to protect victims, protecting identifying information of people, and finally, training police and other investigators on how to deal with the thieves (Schmalleger, 1998). These measures will ensure that everyone has information and identity theft hence everyone will be protected from identity theft. Read More