Identity Theft in America - Essay Example

Identity theft in America Introduction Identity theft is the stealing of one’s personal information with a view to using the same for unauthorized unscrupulous and illegal gains and transactions. Identity theft assumes such a significant dimension in the modern global environment of electronic trade and commerce. In fact internet-based trade and commerce facilitates identity theft to a greater extent. Potential consumers who go often online to purchase goods and services are very much exposed to the risk of identity theft. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched a detailed program of anti-Identity Theft with a three-stage crime prevention strategy. Simply it is all about “deterring, detecting and defending”. For example deterring efforts that a potential identity theft victim is asked to make include such things as placing a fraud alert in the credit report and going for a credit freeze. A credit alert can be either an initial one for just 60 days only or it can be an extended one. Deterring action might include even avoiding phishing scams. Websites which inveigle potential identity theft victims into phishing scams have to be avoided at all cost. Detecting is another effort that the potential victim would have to do in the process of transacting a deal. Successful detections are very far and few in between, despite ever increasing vigilance by federal and state anti-Identity Theft agencies. Thesis statement Implications of identity theft are diverse and complex. In the US such implications again assume a very risk-prone dimension after the 9/11 attacks. The US internal security environment has become so complex and the current efforts by federal and state law enforcement agencies to identify and prevent potential threats to national security are obviously on the rise. Recent measures at the both the levels include some seminal technologically advanced ones including those targeting identity thieves. Superior technologies are needed by law enforcement officials to deter and detect those identity thieves who increasingly adopt undetectable modus operandi to overwhelm and rob their would-be victims. Analysis The US law enforcement authorities have been baffled by the recent spate of crime involving identity theft and phishing scams. With an ever rising global tendency among consumers to shop online, a parallel but highly disturbing development has taken shape too, viz. a breed of thieves known as identity or cyber thieves. Indeed identity thieves is a general term applied to all those potential shady characters lurking in the internet or elsewhere with the sole intention of stealing information of their would-be victims and using such information to open up bogus accounts in the names of their victims and transferring the money in the original account to their (thieves’) names. Though the strategy or modus operandi seems to be very simple, it’s one of the well organized and technically knowledgeable gang of robbers who operate with little more liberty than their counterparts in open physical space. According to a survey conducted by FTC in September 2003, 27.3 million Americans fell victim to identity theft over the preceding 5 years. According to the same survey in the year 2002 business organizations and financial institutions lost almost $48 billion while consumers were duped to the tune of $5 billion. These statistics successfully capture the very raison d’être behind such thefts, i.e. easy money with less risk of being detected and punished. While many identity thieves have adopted such stratagems as requesting for information online form their potential victims, others have even dared to “spam’ their victims to the point of desperation. Phishing and continuous bombardment of potential victims for personal detail and purchasing habits can be sometimes those genuine attempts made by sellers or their agents online. Very often victims of identity theft have been identified as having some familiar common characteristics. In the first instance, those victims who have been shopping or transacting business online have been the easiest target for those cyber thieves. Secondly this category of victims tends to visit websites that make spurious claims about their products and services. Thirdly these victims fancy mega deals that often lead them up the garden path. Finally they easily part with sensitive information at the slightest prodding. Potential identity thieves are less likely to operate from a given location all the time. They constantly shift from one place to the other in the hope that their physical movements would successfully erase the trail. They identify potential victims by phishing for personal details (McNally, 2008). If a certain visitor to a website happens to linger on for more than a minimum amount of time without reason, he or she is a potential victim and becomes an easier target for phishing. Identity thieves operate on the hunch that there are some visitors who are less likely to suspect camouflaged questions. One link leads to another till the potential victim is mesmerized enough to divulge personal and critical detail. In the US this phenomenon has been recorded to be one of the most daunting for law enforcement agencies. Websites that advertise their products and services by making a lot of claims like those seeking to sell health care products are more likely to dupe their customers into parting with sensitive information that can be used to rob them by either third parties or the company itself. Though the website might be maintained by a genuine health care product seller to sell only the products he makes, there can be third parties involved in sifting the information for clues to identify potential victims of identity theft. The subsequent developments could be anything like the theft of the victim’s social security number and duplicitous accounts opened in the name of the victim. Implications that have arisen against this backdrop of ever increasing incidence of identity theft have to be examined in both the national and the international context. The US authorities including FTC have been more concerned about the degree of technical sophistication that goes into each such theft (Biegelman, 2009). While many victims have not reported these thefts to authorities over the fear of being linked to scandals that have national security implications, those who report are often clueless about the history of transactions. E-mail accounts are free and many internet surfers have little or no qualm about having two or more such accounts. Viral marketers often target such e-mail accounts with the hope of prompting a fence-sitting customer to make a purchase on the spur of the moment. Attitudes towards identity theft have changed now. In the first instance many in the US regard it as a nuisance rather than a real threat because most of the time from the viewpoint of the consumer or the potential victim what he/she has lost is some pocket money (according to the FTC survey). However on aggregation the sum total adds up to billions of dollars annually. Secondly many people have the impression that such thefts are impossible because given the ease with which communication with their banks can be carried out, , it’s unlikely that they would lose money from their accounts in a flash. Finally the probability of finding a victim of identity theft is one in thousands. Social websites and chat sites have sprung up with such speed that they tend to educate the unsuspecting public about the possible dangers behind providing information online. For instance these sites have employed not only internet security experts to advice their chatters but also often provide cross-links to other specialist websites that provide such information. Therefore there is very little fear among these web-surfers who tend to identify the source of the potential threat even before it could assume such dangerous proportions. Despite the risk associated with online shopping many do so. E-bay and a number of other sites encourage first visitors to visit them again and again. These activities have far reaching implications for both the visitor and the website administrators. Online security is a concept that requires a greater amount of attention in the current context of high density internet commerce. According to the FTC survey in 2002 alone 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft. Credit card information is the most sought after item by criminals. However it does not mean that internet is the only place where this information can be obtained though certainly it’s the surest place to ensure the criminal’s safety away from public gaze. Often applications for preapproved credit cards are sent by surface mail to potential recipients. When these materials are discarded without destroying the information therein, criminals can lay their hands on them and make use of the information to steal money. Another ploy adopted by criminals is the redirecting of mail method under which the recipient’s mail address is changed without his knowledge. Social security numbers can be stolen and accounts created by these criminals while the victim would know nothing till he/she gets information about new accounts that have been opened up in his/her name. Impersonation is probably another risk associated with it. The criminal would go on carrying out withdrawals in the name of the victim until they are discovered. In the US social security numbers are stolen and money withdrawn and then the criminal himself/herself files for bankruptcy in the name of the victim. The extent to which such crime prevails is not known yet. According to security experts, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many instances of such unreported thefts because victims aren’t sure about what happens in between the loss of a social security number and the final outcome (Braga, 2008). After all social security number is attached to every document including the phone bill. Federal and state authorities have been telling people to adopt precautions in divulging their personal details to suspicious solicitors of personal information. Even when personal information were solicited online by websites which potential victims happen to enter, there would be less of a chance that the victim would part with personal data without being convinced for doing so. Yet now and then there are victims of these well planned thefts carried out with precision that the culprit is very rarely caught or if caught at all it’s only after much of the damage has been done. Identity theft corresponds with identity loss and when it’s the latter experience of an individual then there is very little of personal identity that he can use to live a modern life peacefully. While both federal and state authorities have adopted a series of programs to prevent such crimes, their relevance for and the impact on crime prevention have left much to be desired. In the first instance Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), public interest advocacy groups, that seek to protect consumers from unethical practices of unscrupulous traders or/and sellers and other powerful organized interests span across all states and are actively involved in consumer protection activity. Despite the fact that 39 odd states along with the District of Columbia have brought in laws styled on PIRGs and Consumer Unions, still there are many instances of identity theft and fraud across the country. Federal authorities’ claim that such laws can be more meaningful at the federal level and therefore it’s the federal government that should implement them to achieve intended goals isn’t valid in the current context where in order to incorporate diverse individual wishes of states the whole document could be watered down. Even if individual states have a desire to prevent such crime there would still be much less resource commitment coming forth from them to tackle the problem. Thus the effectiveness of crime prevention programs both at the state level and the federal level needs much more focus and energy. In the first instance, a clear lack of coordination between states and between the federal government and the individual states can be seen. Excess lobbying by various interest groups such as credit bureau personnel could derail efforts by well meaning legislators. The measures adopted so far have had very little impact on the prevention of identity theft and fraud. This is apparent when the latest figures from a few cortically important institutions like the Bank of America and the Department for Veterans’ Affairs are looked at. Almost since 2005 up to now these institutions and a few others have lost personal details of 90 million Americans. This example alone shows how ineffective the current crime prevention strategy is. Crime prevention strategies need to be well coordinated at both the state level and the federal level. The failure to do so would definitely lead to colossal losses in money and resources. Identity theft has to be prevented with innovative strategies (Arrington, 2006). For instance the failure of HR 3997 which sought to provide financial data protection to individuals is due to the fact that it failed to provide adequate protection by sanctioning total freezes on credit information. Even the provision for a full investigation of a reported security breach isn’t that easy to accomplish. Such practical hurdles have rendered some of the state level and federal level efforts to prevent crime futile. Societal factors such as ethnic, cultural and economic determinants have played a very pivotal role in influencing the outcomes of such crime prevention programs. While many state level and federal level attempts such as the ones outlined above to prevent crime, especially identity theft, have been adopted their efficacy in preventing crime apart, the impact of the above societal factors on such programs has been studied with reference to societal outcomes by many researchers (Crawford, 1998). Crawford refers to societal outcomes related to crime prevention programs and investigates in depth their impact on such crime prevention programs. One of his inevitable conclusions is that in the US crime prevention programs are subject to the brunt of poverty related social problems. Poverty among some social segments such as immigrants could act as a huge negative factor in influencing outcomes of crime prevention programs. This is particularly so when such crime prevention programs are intended to solve problems in the short run. This takes the debate to scientific approaches being adopted by many new researchers (Sherman, 2002 and McCord, 2003). Their arguments are centered on the feasibility of adopting unscientific classical approaches to crime prevention. They advocate a policy of scientific innovation along with modern technology in order to tackle the problem of identity theft in particular and crime in general in the modern American society. Modern technology is essentially a very desirable proposition to be incorporated into the fight against crime though its relative cost including that on Research & Development could be so prohibitive as to hamper many programs at the state level. It’s here that the federal law enforcement agencies can play a pivotal role in helping state authorities to adopt far advanced technologies. Notwithstanding the cost factor it’s desirable for the federal government and state governments to adopt some innovative approaches to crime prevention. Yet again it’s the private enterprise and not the public sector that can play a catalytic role here. Private companies have already developed and successfully installed technologically advanced crime prevention programs on their systems and networks. It’s detection that matters and not prosecution. Conclusion Crime prevention especially identity theft and fraud, in the US has been a daunting task against the enormity of this crime taking pace right now at various levels within the society. Billions of dollars have been lost by both business organizations and individuals. Identity theft has acquired a newer and more sophisticated dimension due to the very significant role that technology plays in it. Internet related identity theft is the most difficult to apprehend and often the culprits escape without a trace. The current programs intended to prevent crime have had a very little impact on effective prevention due to a number of reasons. The federal authorities and state officials seem much less to agree and thus coordinate their efforts to achieve a much needed paradigm shift to prevent this type of crime (Welsh & Farringto, 2006). People too have not been enough informed about the impending risks associated with their seemingly innocent day-to-day activities like web-surfing and filling forms. Further the existing crime prevention programs lack adequate back up efforts on the part of authorities who tend to carry out such programs on a haphazard basis. Social factors such as culture and economic circumstances play an equally significant role in crime prevention programs. Social factors have a very big influence on crime prevention programs by way of their negative outcomes such as poverty and deprivation acting as confounding factors. As for the adoption of advanced technologies to achieve better outcomes in the future in crime prevention, the US authorities need to follow what the private business organizations have been doing by researching and developing highly effective techniques to prevent potential identity thieves and criminals. REFERENCES 1. Arrington, R. (2006). Crime Prevention: The Law Enforcement Officers Guide . Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. 2. Biegelman, M. T. (2009). Identity Theft Handbook: Detection, Prevention, and Security. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. 3. Braga, A. A. (2008). Problem-Oriented Policing and Crime Prevention (2nd ed). New York: Criminal Justice Press. 4. Crawford, A. (Editor). (2009). Crime Prevention Policies in Comparative Perspective. Devon: Willan Publishing (UK). 5. McCord, J. (2003). Cures That Harm: Unanticipated Outcomes of Crime Prevention Programs. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.Vol. 587, No. 1, pp. 16-30. 6. McNally, M. M. (2008). Perspectives on Identity Theft (Crime Prevention Studies). New York: Criminal Justice Press. 7. Sherman, L. W. (2002). Evidence-based Crime Prevention. New York: Routledge. 8. Welsh, B. & Farringto, D. P. (2006). Preventing crime: what works for children, offenders, victims, and places. London: Springer. Read More