Identity Theft Research Paper

Identity theft is when a criminal obtains the personal information that belongs to someone else in order for personal of financial gain. The criminal can steal a Social Security number or a driver’s license number to pose as the person that the information was stolen from. For example, the information can be used to help the criminal get credit cards, material things, and sometimes false credentials for immigrants. In order to obtain personal information, identity thieves can hack into computer systems. They can obtain what they need from trash cans. They can also look over a victim’s shoulder while they are going to the ATM for instance. Two main types of identity theft are account takeover and true name theft. Account takeover is when the criminal gets access to the accounts that the victim has already opened. They use this method to acquire material things. The bills come to a different address so that they are never seen by the victim until debt collectors are calling for debts they didn’t accumulate. The true name identity thief uses the victim’s information to set up new accounts such as credit cards, cell phones, or even checking accounts. The government is doing what they can do the combat the issue of identity theft. This is a crime that could be hard to …show more content…
Thieves only require a few key pieces of information to commit identity theft. They need a victim’s name, address, Social Security number, bank account information, credit card account number, and passwords. There are a number of ways that thieves can get their hands on this information. A criminal can steal a person’s wallet or purse. Spam or phishing e-mails can be sent to an unsuspecting victim’s computer and allow the criminal to gain access this way. Hacking into a person’s computer with malicious software can also be helpful to an identity