Online Identity Theft Research Paper

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Online identity theft is a crime whereby criminals impersonate others using information about an individual gathered from the internet, typically for financial gain. If a thief is able to access your personal information, he or she can use it to commit fraud in your name, either online or in the physical world.

Online identity theft is an issue of ethics as we all have a right to privacy, and online identity theft is a serious violation of this right. The thief now has the ability to gain access to a number of the victim’s personal information including financial and banking records. Also, some of the ways that thieves go about accessing this information violates one’s privacy, such as a malicious spyware or viruses that takes the information from your computer.

Society’s position on this topic can be viewed through what is known as the secular position, this is a point of view on a topic that has no influence from any religious or spiritual beliefs. The best way to view the secular position on a topic is to look at laws relating to it. Online identity theft is treated in the same way as identity theft, ‘online identity theft’ refers to the means in which the criminal accessed the identity. At all levels of government, identity theft is illegal if it is done with the intent to commit, or help commit a serious criminal offence. The way in which one may go about stealing another’s identity could also be illegal; trespassing private property to take identity documents, hacking into someone’s computer, installing malware on a person’s phone, the list goes on. If an identity is stolen and used to bully people on the internet; the criminal could also face cyberbullying and online harassment charges. We can also see from the graphic below that 66% of people frequently worry about identity theft. Identity theft is an act of stealing or thieving, thus goes against the Christian virtue of charity which refers to giving to others and the needy. Christian virtues are split in two; the seven deadly sins, and the seven heavenly virtues. Charity is one of the seven heavenly virtues, while its counterpart is greed, one of the seven deadly sins. Prudence is a Cardinal value that is about doing
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As online identity theft is a crime, it is not done for the purposes of the greater good.

Due to the relatively modern nature of the topic, there is no direct link to online identity theft or identity theft in any official church documents or values. But after researching for the broader term; theft, one can gather that the church views theft and stealing as being acts of pure evil, and that people who commit these acts should be looked down upon. It could also be said that a person who commits acts of evil such of this is not in ownership of agape which is the highest form of love for all mankind and God.

I personally share a similar view on online identity theft; theft, as that of the Catholic church. I have been raised with strong values about respecting others and their property and the act of identity theft goes against these values. My view is that identity theft, no matter the reason to do it, is a second-rate act for someone to perform and that the person who steals another’s identity should be looked down upon in the eyes of the law and be charged for their

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