Direct and Digital Marketing - Essay Example

Identity theft is basically the illegal use of an individual's personal information including such identifiers as social security numbers, driving license numbers, financial cards and account information, usually for frauds and crimes without the consent if the original owner. This crucial information can be used to fraudulently obtain such things as loans, credit, employment, healthcare services, rentals, and mortgages. Identity theft has become a global problem. It was regarded the worst in US until recently because, in US, the traditional use of the social security numbers is identification - a piece of information that, when linked to the name and address of the individual, makes it relatively easy for a thief to get all the necessary information regarding an individuals identity.

However, the problem has caught up in Europe too with the UK Home Office estimation that identity theft is growing at 165% per year in the UK and is currently costing the country £1.3 billion annually. An interesting fact about the increase of identity theft is that it is greatest at rising in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia - two of the new hotspots in the current trend of outsourcing. According to a survey on internet security by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, about 97% of the users online consider the identity theft a very serious problem.

These underlying perceptions of people are having dire effects on the businesses trying to market their products online (digital marketing) or directly through phone or email. Another interesting fact is that fraud committed during card-not-present transactions accounts for 60% of fraud which has made people further cautious of any kind of online transaction they make.  Companies and businesses are starting to realize that the increasing ratio of identity theft and its dire consequences on the perception of people has made the use of credit cards and sharing of other personal data even for authentic business purposes very limited.