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Ramifications of Identity Theft

March 20th, 2009 at 12:29pm Under Main Content

With over 500,000 new cases each year (and some say upwards of 900,000), identity theft is one of the fasting growing crimes in America. In many states it isn’t even illegal, or hardly punishable if it is. Identity theft is increasing throughout the nation as well as in North Dakota. The is perhaps due to the difficult economy, said Barrie Crandall, ASB assistant vice president of compliance. This identity theft is much more debilitating than losing your credit cards, or even your social security card or passport. This is the theft of your soul, the essence of who YOU are.

Although there are many different tactics criminals try to bilk people out of their money on the web, identity theft is undoubtedly the biggest. Capturing a person’s personal, financial and even medical identity is tantamount to a virtual kidnapping. In addition, the actual act of identity theft is dynamic and constantly evolving, thus any technical materials are being continually revised. The second type of synthetic identity theft is where the thief steals only part of your identity and merges it with other information for use in places where the checks aren’t as stringent. They may use a name that’s similar to yours in connection with part of a social security number plus your address.

There is no question that identity theft is a growing problem for law enforcement, and all indications are that it will continue to grow beyond local agencies’ resources and abilities. Fortunately, there are many public and private organizations that are available to help law enforcement agencies with this dilemma. While financial identity theft is the most prevalent (of the approximate 10,000 financial crime arrests that Secret Service agents made in 1997, 94 percent involved identity theft), it certainly isn’t the only type. Other types of identity theft, however, usually involve a financial element as well — typically to fund some sort of criminal enterprise. Identity theft is the new crime of the information age. A criminal collects enough personal data on someone to impersonate a victim to banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions.

Identity theft is a two-step process. First, someone steals your personal information. Identity theft is still the number one consumer crime in the United States today! This has led to a huge rise in demand for Identity Theft Prevention services. In the case that you were jeopardized financially, you are much more likely to receive restitution if the identity theft is verified. Send all documentation by certified mail, return receipt requested, so that you have confirmation that everything was received.

The best way to protect yourself from Internet identity theft is to get an Internet security solution that is up to the challenge. And while most people have a perception that identity theft is financial (e.g. In Arizona, for instance, 36 percent of all identity theft is for employment purposes, compared with only 5 percent in Maine, a state with far fewer illegal aliens.

At the Personal Level Identity theft is less publicized when it occurs on the individual level, but the number of ways in which it can occur on this level is just as distressing. The simplest method involves stealing or finding your wallet, or digging through your trash. The strongest protection against identity theft is not to identify at all - thereby ensuring that information cannot be reused to impersonate an individual elsewhere. As such, identify theft is often a question of too little privacy or too much identification. Identity theft is the act of stealing ones identity including the name, address telephone number, credit cards and mother maiden name. In most cases, it is not only the identity stolen.

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