Essay/Term paper: Identity theft

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Information Technology

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.