Matters with Identity Theft

Rosie Baez

English 113B

Professor Lawson

Final Draft-Matters with Identity Theft

Feb 28^th 2013

Word Count:1,219

Matters with Identity Theft

            In over a decade our resources in technology have advanced tremendously. Every year there is some amazing new and better device coming out for everyone to purchase. Everyone gets super thrilled when they see new technology, such as a cellphone chip which will allow you to easily stand in front of a cashier and wave your phone to purchase an item. Also, social networking sites allow you to feel very comfortable putting your personal information on the Internet. However, these advances in technology are actually the causes of numerous cases of identity theft.

            The way I see identity theft is anyone being able to steal all identification about you and using it to their advantage. The identity thief looks for an individual or a family that is wealthy.  In the process of taking people’s identity the thief investigates the victim by searching for information about where they live, how they live, what they do for a living, or basic necessities about their life that they can use. With the information the impersonators have about their victims, they go about their business being whoever they have chosen to steal from. The main items they take are money from savings, checking, and saving bonds that the individual or family might have saved. Another way identity theft could occur is someone taking a social security number to file a tax return to get a refund or using an identity to get a job, which is the case in the video IRS ID Theft Are You a Victim of Identity Theft?. Almost everyone has encountered one form of identity theft. According to Bert-Jaap Koops and Ronald Leenes, there are thousands of victims around the world who have been involved in identity theft cases.  When one hears the words “identity theft” it is easy to imagine victim in a panic, chasing their thieves running away with their identities (“Identity Theft”). To explain further, identity theft does eventually run through people’s minds once they have seen it happen to someone or have heard it on the news. The thief’s main goal is to get the monetary benefits of the victim not just to steal their identity. “Identity criminals do not steal identities: they use identity as a tool to steal money” (“Identity Theft). What often happens is the victim never notices the situation until after he or she realizes the damages the theft caused. People are naïve to identity theft, thinking that it will never happen to them.  

 

 

            When new cell technology comes out every year most people get so excited about it, that they do not realize it can be one of the major causes of identity theft. An article from the Los Angeles Times called “Cell phones to keep track of your purchases and you” discusses the whole idea of new technology making people’s lives much easier. People love the idea of going shopping without the drag of waiting in long lines to purchase what they want or need to get. You just “Wave your phone in front of a reader at the cash register. The purchase price is instantly deducted from your checking account like a debit card or applied to a credit card account”. Instead of the swipe of the credit card, it is as simple as just one wave of a cell phone and the customers are done. There is a downfall to this method because “In theory, anyone -- or any company or government agency -- with a desire to do so would be able to identify you from as much as 300 feet away and track you as you go about your business”. There goes all your personal information that’s meant to be private.

            To give a prime example of how identity theft could easily happen to anyone, I found a funny cartoon picture on identity theft involving an innocent victim on the Internet. The guy in the picture, Mr. Jones, gets a disturbing phone call from an unknown caller who claims he is from his credit card company. The guy who has made the call immediately starts asking all kinds of questions about him and his family. The operator says, “To confirm that I’m speaking with the real Mr. Jones, I’ll need you to tell me your social security number, date of birth, and mother’s maiden name.” Once Mr. Jones answers all of his questions there is a sudden hang-up. Mr. Jones says, “Hello?”, but the identity theft has already begun because he received all of the information he needed to assume Mr. Jones’ identity.  This reveals how people are easily deceived and feel comfortable with giving out their personal information to strangers.





 

            When social networking started people assumed it was just another form of talking. The first social network was Myspace, which allowed users to invite friends they knew or wanted to know to be their friends. They were able to take pictures, chat with friends, even post quotes they were thinking about. Then it evolved to Facebook, Twitter, dating sites, and blogs of some sort. All these networks were made to share who you were or wanted to be, or more. The personal information may include the following: birthday, where you live, photos of yourself, age, where you may work, also where you have traveled. We have never stopped to think what we are posting on these social networks and we should. People can effortlessly track where people are or have traveled because of how loosely people share their lives on these social networking sites. I have had personal experience because I was one of those users who would share certain things about me on the social sites. This one girl that I went to high school with would make several false profiles using me to be her to talk to other people. (Mainly guys). I caught her doing it three times. She would use my pictures, my name, my age, and constantly talk to whoever she felt like talking to. Finally I reported her to the police so she would stop doing what she did. The police told me I was not the only one she had done this to. Ever since then I have been more cautious what I put up on these websites. The article Detecting Spammers on Social Networks talks about the way social networking affects adolescents into today’s society. Teenagers spend too much of their free time on these popular sites sharing all their personal details about them. With the information they share, “for example, cybercriminals might exploit the implicit trust relationships between users in order to lure victims to malicious websites. As another example, cybercriminals might find personal information valuable for identity theft or to drive targeted spam campaigns”.  We need to be watchful for what we share online because we never know who is watching us on the other side of the screen.

             Identity theft is a serious problem that should not be taken lightly. There are too many identities being stolen that sometimes lead to tragedies. We have to learn how to keep personal information private to protect our identities from strangers. All our personal information makes us who we are so we should value that and not give it out so easily. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes and have a better private future.          

 Works Cited

Bert-Jaap koops, Ronald Leenes Identity theft, identity fraud and/or identity-related crime Sep. 2006. Feb 10^{th 2013}.

Callcentercomics. Comic Strip. callcentercomics.com. Web. Feb 7^th2013

Stringhini, Gianluca, Christopher Kruegel, and Giovanni Vigna. "Detecting Spammers on Social Networks." Proceedings of the 26th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, (2010): 1-9. Feb 26^th 2013

IRS - ID Theft Are You a Victim of Identity Theft? Youtube. Published March 16, 2012. Web. Feb 9^th.    

Larzaus, Daid Cellphones to keep track of your purchases -- and you “Los Angeles Times” march 16, 2008. Web Feb 11^{th 2013}.