Identity Fraud: America's Fastest Growing White Collar Crime

Many people believe that they will never be a victim of identity fraud but everyone is vulnerable to it. Identity fraud is America’s fastest growing white collar crime. Identity fraud is a term used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. The most common forms of identity theft occur when someone obtains another person's social security number, driver's license number, date of birth, and the like and uses it to open a fraudulent bank, credit card, cellular telephone, or other account, or to obtain false loans. Identity theft started to become a very popular crime in the late 1990s because of the increase of computer use. It is said that an identity is stolen online every three seconds. A persons identity can be stolen false applications for loans and credit cards, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, fraudulent use of telephone calling cards, or obtaining other goods or privileges …show more content…
One reason that a person would commit identity fraud would be out of desperation. It is usually a financial desperation because the person committing the fraud wants something that they are not able to afford on their own. Identity fraud is a crime with usually a low risk and a high reward (Stroup, 2015). It is a low risk because when people commit identity fraud they are usually invisible which means they almost never get caught. Another reason that a person might commit identity fraud is because they are jealous of what a person has. Jealousy is a common factor for many crimes that happen and identity fraud is no different. A person can see that someone else is doing extremely well for themselves and figure that they would not notice if they used their information to buy certain things but the person committing the fraud will not stop after just doing it one