Identity Theft in the United States (Essay Sample)

Identity Theft in the United States
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Identity Theft in the United States
Identity theft is a serious crime. A stolen identity is essentially a potent cover of anonymity for terrorists and criminals, and is a real danger to both private citizens and national security. Identity theft is not a new thing in the United States. Criminals have been falsifying identifications for many years, for instance check forgers. Today however, the threat of identity theft is more common and the scams have become highly sophisticated, and there are even new online elements (Stickley, 2008). This report provides an in-depth discussion of identity theft in the United States.
Stickley (2008) pointed out that identity theft usually takes place whenever a crook steals someone’s personal information and makes use of it without his or her permission. It is a serious crime and may wreak havoc with one’s credit history, finances, and repute – and may take money, time, as well as patience to resolve. If an identity thief has a person’s personal information, this identity thief can actually drain the person’s bank account, open new utility accounts, accumulate charges on a person’s credit card, or even receive medical treatment on the person’s health insurance (Bureau of Consumer Protection, 2014).
Identity theft in the United States is actually the fastest growing crime and the number of incidents of identity theft in America has gotten to 9.9 million annually as reported by the Federal Trade Commission (TransUnion, 2014). Roughly 19 persons in the United States fall victim to identity theft per minute. For the average victim, it takes roughly 30 hours and $500 to resolve each crime of identity theft (TransUnion, 2014). Today, it is becoming more common for identity theft criminals to be those closest to the person; their victim. One research established that 32 percent of the victims of identity theft discovered that a relative or family member was actually guilty for stealing their identity and 18 percent were in fact victimized by a neighbor, a friend, or an in-home employee (TransUnion, 2014). If they are discovered early, the majority of identity theft crimes could be resolved. Financial institutions such as creditors and banks in most cases only hold the victim answerable for the initial $50 of deceitful charges. Just 28 percent of the cases of identity theft in America involve financial or credit fraud whereas employment, bank, utility and phone fraud comprise another 50 percent of cases (Stickley, 2008).
Several geographic areas in the United States have higher concentrations of crooks. Stickley (2008) observed that the most popular states in the country for identity thieves are Texas, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Delaware. In essence, there seems to be a fraud belt running through the rural Southeast that extends from Mississippi to Virginia, with considerable activity in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Even as rings could comprise as few as 2 individuals who coordinate their efforts to steal the identity of people, some rings are actually much bigger as a lot of fraud rings comprise families that work together (TransUnion, 2014).
ID Analytics categorizes various sorts of identity theft. The first kind of identity theft is stolen or lost account. Even though this is commonly a headache for the person victimized, the issue is generally resolved by closing the account given that the criminal cannot pretend to be the person in a different forum (Stickley, 2008). Secondly, there is straightforward identity theft in which the identity thief appropriates the personal information of a victim, for instance birthday, Social Security number, or name. Thirdly, some identity thieves would steal or make up information from a variety of sources and then mash it up and create a new, forged identity. This could really be big annoyance for individuals if their real Social Security number, address, credit history, or name is actually linked with the activity of the identity thief in credit databases (Stickley, 2008).
The fourth type of identity theft is known as identity manipulation. This one involves a person altering their own personal information in order to get access to benefits to which they are not really entitled, or to conceal previous criminal or credit breaches (Stickley, 2008). The other popular trend entails stealing the identities of people who are dead. Identity thieves collect personal information from individuals they know are dead and they then utilize that information in opening new credit card accounts and making purchases. There would be no responsible party when the bill comes due. Each year in America, about 2.5 million persons who are dead get their identities stolen (Bureau of Consumer Protection, 2014).
Identity theft prevention policy – red flags
The Federal Trade Commission has developed red flags rules that aimed at preventing identity theft. Every entity that engages in activities covered by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) red flag rules should conform to them (Salem State University, 2014). The Red Flags Rule specifies the way that financial institutions can develop, execute and administer an identity theft prevention program. Such a program has to include 4 fundamental components that create a framework for dealing with the threat of identity theft. (i) An identity theft prevention program should comprise reasonable procedures and policies for identifying the red flags of identity theft which might occur during the company’s every day operations (Salem State University, 2014). A Red Flag is basically a suspicious practice or pattern, or particular activities which suggest the likelihood of identity theft. If a customer should present some sort of identification in order to open an account with the financial institution, for example, an ID that looks fake is a red flag for the company. (ii) A program has to be designed that would be capable of detecting the identified red flags. For instance, if forged IDs have been identified as a red flag, then the company should have procedures in place for detecting possible altered, forged, or counterfeit identification (Salem State University, 2014). (iii) A program has to specify suitable actions that the company would take when it detects red flags. (iv) A program has to spell out how the company would keep the program up to date to be able to reflect new threa...