Rising Identity Theft Crimes

Each year identity theft is on the increase according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Since 2004, a shocking rate of eleven “million” have fallen victim of identity theft. At the same time, experts are working overtime to find the underlying cause of the problems. Thus, at any given moment anyone of us can lose our identity to theft.

Few states set new laws to protect citizens from identity theft. The new laws state that companies are not permitted to store personal information from consumers, such as social numbers on their database, nor are the companies entitled to give out the social numbers to other persons. The state laws found that thousands of pieces of information leaked from the ‘databases' of particular companies into the hands of thieves. Thus, the databases online that claim to have secured encryptions did not stop identity thieves from getting into the computers of these companies.

While sources claim that the law works hard to fight identity theft, the contradictions exist since victims around the world says it all when few tell their story. Several victims of identity theft in preceding years claimed that the law did nothing in the way of helping them find the perpetrator, or restoring their lives. When the crimes were reported, the law gave the victim a report number and never contacted them again. Thus, when the persons were lifted up to court for unauthorized debts, lawyers or other authorities did nothing to help them out. Thus, the terrorist attack on September 11 should have promoted the government to add new laws that where bullet proof on identity theft, since the terrorist used identities stolen from other individuals to carry out this act on America.

Identity theft is one of the worst crimes ever committed against an individual. When a person becomes a victim of rape, assault, or other crimes they are become survivors since they can fight back and restore their lives. The memory continues and most times the predator is caught the victims' are able to move on. Thus, when a person falls into the hands of identity theft, it leaves a lingering feeling of raped, robbed, stripped naked in public, beaten, and so forth. The feeling lasts for years, since the security and privacy of the individual has been loss forever.

Identity theft is increasing each day of our existence and although technology claims to develop new strategies that will halt identity theft, they fail to realize that thieves work harder to get in the doors of new designs. If you look back through the development process, you will see how thieves are one-step ahead of technology.

New technology is merely a new challenge for identity thieves. AOL claims to have some of the best tools for fighting identity theft, yet victims around the world will tell you different. One of the biggest swindles abroad the Internet is the Spam mails that arrive in your mailbox daily. Spammers are sending mails to consumers claiming that their card is out dated and needs to be updated, thus these mails come in the boxes of thousands of boxes with the heading “AOL Billing.” Never, give your information over the Internet, especially if the heading says, “Please update your information now to prevent…”

We are encouraged to never give our information out over phone lines or the World Wide Net. Thus, this includes never giving out information on bulletin boards, discussion boards, forums, blogs, and so forth. It is important to avoid giving you telephone number online, since anyone with a slice of personal information on you can develop into identity theft.

To help fight identity theft we can think of a few strategies together. When you visit pharmacies, department stores, gas stations, or anywhere that clerks asks for your information when writing checks or using credit and/or debit cards make sure that no one sees you type in PIN numbers or passwords. Monitor the clerk, making sure that she or he does not look too long at the information on your driver license or credit/debit cards. It cannot hurt to write down the areas you visit, keeping a log of who looks at your information daily, even if you are not a victim of identity theft.