Topic of My Conversation: Identity Theft

My group decided to go with Identity Theft as our topic. One of the members recommended we read the book "Free" by Chris Anderson, which is the idea that businesses can make more money by giving away products and services rather than charging for them. This interested all of us, but in the end we decided to go with identity theft because that was the topic we covered that week in class. Once our topic was chosen, we then split it into four parts, giving all of us something different to talk about. The four parts ended up being the history of identity theft (the past vs. the future), how identity thefts obtain personal information, what you can do to protect yourself and an example of a large business that had someone break into their system and steal valuable information. My focus was the history of identity theft. I would talk about what it is, how it emerged and how it differs now compared to the past.

A definition of identity theft that I found on the website http://101-identitytheft.com/idtheft.htm states, "Identity theft occurs when someone, without your knowledge, acquires a piece of your personal information and uses it to commit fraud." The website also explains that credit card theft is the most common infraction committed. Some other categories listed included employment, tax retures, social security, medical and many, many more. The list is pretty much unlimited. If someone gets your personal information, whether it's your credit card number or your social security number, they can do some serious damage.

Obviously, identity theft is an ever-growing issue because of the expansion of the internet. Many people conduct payments only online, from online banking to christmas shopping. When this is the case, they are at high risk for identity theft. Although, many websites are credible and trustworthy, that does not mean a theif cannot gain access to all your information. No website is 100% secure because there is always someone out there that can outsmart the system. So I Googled the history of identity theft and the website http://www.spamlaws.com/id-theft-history.html explains how it evolved. They claim that identity theft actually emerged from theives physically going through dumpsters or tapping in on phone calls to steal information. Although any type of identity theft is serious and scary, at least through the internet it's a lot less personal. If someone was listening in on my phone conversation or digging through my garbage, I would feel a lot more violated.

Another huge issue regarding identity theft is the fact that credit card companies send out millions of credit card applications to homes. If a theif got their hands on that card, application and your name and address, they could open an account under your name and do some serious damage. Overall, identity theft is a huge issue among Americans, especially those involved with online shopping and banking. Identity theft will never stop, but then again, Americans will never stop posting their information online. Something needs to be done in order to protect both ourselves and the banks that serve us. I'm sure something or someone will figure out a way to minimize the effects, but until then we will all just have to be careful who we trust.

Here are some statistics from http://www.spendonlife.com/guide/2009-identity-theft-statistics on identity theft:

1. Identity theft is on the rise, affecting almost 10 million victims in 2008 (a 22% increase from 2007)

2. Victims are spending less money out of pocket to correct the damage from ID theft. The mean cost per victim is $500, and most victims pay nothing due to zero-liability fraud protection programs offered by their financial institutions.
3. 71% of fraud happens within a week of stealing a victim’s personal data.
4. Low-tech methods for stealing personal information are still the most popular for identity thieves. Stolen wallets and physical documents accounted for 43% of all identity theft, while online methods accounted for only 11%.