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Insurance Journal  Jul 1 
Georgia Insurance Commissioner John W. Oxendine said insurance agents in several states have been called by scammers posing as insurance regulators in order to collect personal data that would ...
Cellular News  Jun 26 
IT Security professionals admit that they are suffering from password fatigue when it comes to using their mobile devices, which leaves their data exposed to personal and corporate identity theft if these devices were to fall into the wrong hands.
Silicon Alley Insider  Jun 22 
Bozeman, Mont. has stopped its controversial practice of asking city job applicants to share their login/password to social networking and other Web sites as part of HR background checks. This is smart, because the practice is on sketchy privacy...
New York Times  Jun 12 
Increased use of electronic medical records surely means a rise in ID theft, and many don’t know yet that they are victims.
New York Times  Jun 12 
Just before the A.C.L.U. filed its lawsuit seeking hearings for hundreds of detained legal immigrants, the lawyers involved realized their lead plaintiff had a dark past: participation in an identity theft ring.
Dual Income No Kids  Jun 8 
It is more essential than ever before to safeguard personal information. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, last year there was a 47% increase in data breeches, affecting 35.7 million Americans . Here are the top ways to protect...
MarketWatch  May 22 
Nobody really likes dealing with the IRS, but there are a variety of reasons you may be forced to do so through no fault of your own.
Business Wire  May 15 
Singing River Federal Credit Union, serving Jackson, George and Greene Counties, announced today that comprehensive identity theft resolution services from Identity Theft 911 (www.identitytheft911.com), America’s leading identity theft resolution
New York Times  May 6 
The immigration lawyers’ national bar association called on the Justice Department to consider dismissing the guilty pleas of nearly 300 illegal immigrant workers arrested in a plant raid in Iowa.
New York Times  May 5 
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the law may not be used against many illegal workers who used false Social Security numbers to get jobs.
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Identity Theft is a type of fraud in which perpetrators obtain and use victims' private information, like social security numbers, bank account numbers and driver's license numbers.

[edit] Types of Identity Theft

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, ID theft can be divided into three categories:

  • financial ID theft - making purchases or bank transactions with the victim's private information
  • criminal ID theft - committing crimes under the identity of the victim
  • identity cloning - assuming the victim's identity in everyday life[2]

In 2007, there were 8.4 million adult victims of identity theft, with a total cost of $49.3 billion.[3]

[edit] How is confidential information obtained by ID thieves?

In order to commit ID theft, the perpetrator must obtain the victim's private and confidential information. There are many ways this can be done. The following are some of the most common methods:

  • dumpster diving
  • tampering with mail
  • stealing wallets (or finding lost ones)
  • hacking into internet transmissions over wireless networks
  • soliciting personal information through 'phishing' (posing as an entity legitimately needing personal information, like a bank , eBay , or PayPal)

[edit] Who gains when ID theft is on the rise?

  • Banks and credit card companies with specific anti-ID theft protection. For example, Citi credit cards come with Citi Identity Theft Solutions and Discover offers its customers Discover Identity Theft Protection

[edit] Who loses?

  • Banks and credit card companies who have less substantial ID protection programs lose customers to competitors with better protection offerings.
  • Companies that have been compromised by ID thieves in the past suffer from bad PR and decreased confidence from consumers in their ability to keep information safe. Hannaford Supermarkets, part of Etablissements Delhaize Freres et Cie Le Lion S.A. (DEG), sufferred a security breach in March 2008 in which an estimated 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen.[4]

[edit] References

  1. Flickr
  2. ID Theft Center - Fact Sheet 120, Identity Theft and Children
  3. Identity Theft Surveys and Studies: How Many Identity Theft Victims Are There? What is the Impact on Victims?
  4. InfoWorld.com - Data thieves steal credit card data from supermarket chain, March 17, 2008
 
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