Identity Theft, How to Keep It from Happening to You

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Identity theft

How it occurs, and how to prevent it from happening

March 9, 2014

Paul corwin

ENG/102

March 9, 2014

Paul corwin

ENG/102

You get home from a long day at work, and are going through your mail as you are looking over your credit card statement you realize how expensive gas has gotten, how much money you wasted this month on dining out, and the $2,500 you spent in Boca Raton……wait a minute, you didn’t go to Boca Raton!! In fact you haven’t taken a vacation in two years. You have just become another victim of identity theft. “Identity theft happens when someone steals your personal information and uses it without your permission. It’s a serious crime that can wreak havoc with your finances, credit history, and reputation — and can take time, money, and patience to resolve.” (http://www.consumer.ftc.gov)

In the next few paragraphs we will discuss how a person can become a victim of identity theft, what steps can be taken to prevent it, as well as what a person can do if they are ever the one out of 14 Americans over the age of sixteen to become a victim of identity theft this year (http://www.bjs.gov)

Most people already know that identity theft is an act of fraud, it is a crime in which a criminal “wrongfully obtains and then uses an individual’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain”. (http://www.justice.gov) But it is not common knowledge that up until 1998, this was not considered a federal crime. The US Justice Department website cites one very particular case (and also indicates that there were many like it) as a major influence upon getting Congress to make Identity Theft the federally enforced crime that it is today. In the particular case that the Justice Department cites, the criminal, who was at the time of the offense a convicted felon, was not only audacious about the level of his offenses, but also actually went so far as to...