Identity Theft

(This information is drawn from various internet sources and the author’s personal experience)

Until 1998 Identify theft did not have a name. It was not until the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act was passed, that it even became a crime.

Identity theft represents the most intimate and intrusive of all frauds because it involves the stealing of someone's financial persona. What the theft steals is the private information of an individual like their Social Security number, name, address, and telephone number.

The thief’s ultimate goal is always to acquire money in the easiest way possible. It’s is the kind of crime that can take months to repair and where the damage will continue to be felt for years.

Thieves often use this fact that most individual victims are not required to pay for the financial damages they cause. Convincing themselves that big business or some money-hoarding banks are the only ones who suffer, making it, in the mind of the thief at lease, a victimless crime. The fact of the matter is that businesses and banks will eventually pass the costs of this type of theft onto consumers in the form of higher interest rates, increased charges, and higher prices. 

Identity thieves can obtain personal information in a number of ways.

1. By stealing mail directly from home mailboxes
2. By pretending to be a loan officer and ordering your credit report
3. By shoulder surfing" at the automatic teller machine
4. By dumpster diving" to find personal information not properly destroyed

Because many of us use a computer to pay our bills or access our bank accounts we make ourselves vulnerable to ID theft. A couple of ways thieves access our information are by:

"Phishing” a relatively new acquisition method, which happens when fraudulent  e-mails are sent to online users impersonating Internet Service Providers (ISPs), merchants, and banks, in an attempt to steal financial information. These e-mails always appear to be from legitimate sources. Remember: legitimate businesses and banks never ever ask for your password in an email.

"Web spoofing" related to phishing it is when Internet predators masquerade as an actual businesses. With web spoofing, a company's web site is reproduced under a similar domain name that is controlled by the identity thieves. Users believe they are visiting a legitimate web site, are thus tricked into typing in private information.
Most experts agree on the follow advice as a minimum.

1. Shred all documents, credit applications, and financial statements with personal information on them.
2. Each year, order and review copies of your credit reports from the three credit reporting agencies.
3. Do not give out personal information such as bank numbers, passwords, and Social Security numbers over the phone or the Internet unless you initiated contact.
4. Do not keep your Social Security card in your wallet.
5. Use a safe at home to lock up checkbooks, passwords, and financial paperwork.
6. Do not give anyone, no matter how trusted, personal identification numbers.

Since identity theft is so closely tied with technology, much of its success depends upon the average person's inability, or disinclination, to keep up with ever changing internet security upgrades.

It’s estimated that Identity theft will strikes 10 million people this year and in many cases, the thieves and their victims will never meet face to face.

In today's internet dependant world, a criminal can devastate a person from next door or across an ocean without ever knowing, or caring, who you are. Continuing education will certainly help, but ultimately we must do more than attempt to fight technology with technology.

Identity theft will not go away until we address the real problem, which as I see it is the lack of respect for real people by dehumanizing them as numbers.  

 James Jensen is a retired Law Enforcement officer with over 30 years of experience. He was licensed by the State of Michigan as a professional Security Agent and Investigator and has authored dozens of articles on Business and Personal Security. He has taught and lectured on Workplace Violence Prevention and Personal Security for many years.

Webmaster Tip:  With a little work, you can always check to see who an email is really from.

Most people send emails using nicknames or alias.  Wells Fargo Bank is an example of a nickname.  So who really sent the email?

You want to display the message header

In Yahoo mail, go to Actions and select view full header.  Yes, it is looks complicated - but it's not.  Look at the return to address, and the reply to address.

For Gmail:

1. Log in to Gmail.
2. Open the message you'd like to view headers for.
3. Click the down arrow next to Reply, at the top-right of the message pane.
4. Select Show original.

The full headers will appear in a new window.

For other web mail providers: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=22454#

And if you can't find the information there - go to google and search on - the name of your web mail provider + display message header.

How often do I do this?  When ever I receive an email that needs a reply that wants personal information.   Ebay is an example.  It's not really from Ebay - that is just a nickname they used.  Just another perp after my credit card information!