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October 07, 2004
Why Is Identity Theft Growing So Fast?
Why are cases of identity theft continuing to grow? The answer is simple: Identity theft, phishing scams, and other computer crimes offer high gain and low risk compared to other ways to commit criminal acts.
For identity theft, it's possible to steal someone's financial information via a computer without their knowledge. Now, let's face it, if you steal someone's car or thier pockebook, or even their valuable jewelry, they will know very quickly.
With identity theft, the first crime is taking the information and the second crime is using that information to steal money. With other types of theft, such as auto theft, the criminal doesn't have the luxury of stealing a car and then selling it again before someone realizes what has taken place.
Identity theft is actually "high gain" because the criminal that has taken someone's identity to open financial or credit account can purchase different items many times over and over. It's more bang for the buck.
Surely the future will bring us to fingerprint or retina scans to verify ourselves one day and this won't be possible. Of course, the downside is, that will be the full realization of big brother.
In the meantime, education is the answer. We must educate our friends, family, and co-workers to the dangers of phishing and teach them to never respond to requests for personal information online (or by telephone for that matter).
Posted by savsb at October 7, 2004 07:30 PM