Identity Theft Essay, Research Paper

Identity Theft

Boo! Are you scared? You should be, you see I’m a ghost and everyday I tap in to

the information cyber world. And everyday I have access to you. Worse yet I

could be you. According to the secret service approximatly one half a billion

dollars is lost every year to identity theft online. What people don’t seem to

realize is that the internet world is just like any other community. so it’s

safe to assume the cyberworld would act as any natural community would with

entrapranaurs, vast corperations, little guys selling warez, doctors visiting

patients in their cyber offices, church organazations, and cyber crime as well

as cyber criminals.With so many new users signing on everyday the cyber world

has become a tourast trap so to speak where nameless faceless conartists work

the crowds. Ghosts.Anybody can fall victem to a ghost. Nobody is really truely

safe because our personal information is distrubted like candy on halloween. We

use our social security numbers as identification numbers Credit card numbers

are printed on every receipt. And our liscense number is used on a daily basis.

Despite this there are ways to prevent yourself from falling victem to identity

theft. you see a criminal likes easy prey. They don’t want to have to work for

it. It’s like locking your car at the mall, sure someone might break in anyway,

but chance are if your doors are lock the will probably move on to another car.

First off… Never give your credit card number online out unless you are

positive that the company you are dealing with is legitimate and reputable. If

you aren’t sure call the better burough of business. Never give out your social

security number unless you absolutly have to, the only times you are legally

obligated to give out your social security number is when you are requesting

government aid of some kind or for employment reasons. Also I have

information packets that I will hand out reguarding a company that for a small

cost has information about everybody. The packets have detailed inform atio on

how to have your name and your family members names removed from their data base

system.Now you might be thinking ” Granted I can see why you wouldn’t want to

give out your credit card numbers but What could actually be done with my social

security number?” Everything. This is your most vital information. Say I were

a cybercriminal. Say I came across your social security number while perusing

the school database. With your social security number I can obtain information

about you through the school by oh requesting a transcript for instance. Later

I could sign on to my annonomous account and fill out an application for

american express and maybe a master card and oh I could use a new beeper to,

this one is shot.By changing your adress to a PO box or an abandoned apartment

box. I could pick up my new cards and legitamatly become you. I could also take

it another step and request a new birth certificate, because It’s not at all

dificult to find out where you were born because the service I ment ioned

earlier has all of this information for me. I can even get a photo license with

your information. Scared yet?So I charge you thousands of dollars and you don’t

even know it until you try to take out a loan for your daughters new car.

Granted in most cases you might not have to pay for the monitary damage directly

but it will take you years to fix your credit. This is identity theft.. As I

said earlier anybody can become a victem. But now you ave vital information

that could prevent you from becoming one. So Never give out your information

unless you have absolutly have to. Do yourself a favor and do your transactions

in person. The information cyberworld is a wonderful place to visit, but just

like in tiajauna don’t let the little mexican guy sell you a gold necklace for

$80 bucks and don’t fall pray to the ghosts.