How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

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How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft Computer Fundamentals- CSCI -1000 February 25, 2013 Bainbridge College Introduction Years ago, the term identity theft was never used. In today’s modern world the term identity theft is heard on a daily basis. It has become the fastest growing epidemic across the world. Identity theft is fraud by using another person’s social security number, bank information, or any other personal information to obtain the identity of that person. The crime of identity theft is committed by fraudulent means to obtain financial resources from the person. The information below will include the types of identity theft, how it occurs, how large the growing problem is, and how to protect yourself from it. What is Identity Theft? Business & Money defines identity theft as: “Identity theft occurs when the personal identifying information of an individual is misappropriated and used in order to gain some advantage, usually financial, by deception (White, 2012).” Many people confuse regular fraud as being the same as identity theft, and that is not the case. In a fraud case, the criminal is not taking the identity of a certain person. They are only using banking, or credit card information to conduct unauthorized transactions. No identity is taken. 1) There are two stages to identity theft. a) Unauthorized Collection: Personal information must be obtained from an individual. Personal information can either be obtained from a living person or from a deceased person. b) Fraudulent Use: The criminal impersonates the victim by using their personal information to obtain financial gain by the use of their credit, or banking information. How Identity Theft Occurs Identity thieves use low-tech and high tech means when obtaining personal information of their victim. These means are broken

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