Do You Know the Origin of Identity Theft?
February 14, 2008
Just where did identity theft come from and who started the ball rolling for identity theft to become the worlds fastest growing crime? This article spreads a little light, hopefully.
Identity theft is now a huge problem world wide. This criminal activity not only hurts the organizations that are never paid, but also the individuals that have had their identities stolen. It also harms the general public because we are forced to pay the extra fees and higher interest rates companies must charge to make up for the money lost through these crimes. Although the origin of identity theft may seem difficult to pinpoint, it is really simply a part of a crime that has been a part of human history since prehistory. That crime is of course theft.
Is The Origin of Identity Theft Just a Creative Slant on Stealing?
However a person chooses to look at identity theft, it can be reduced to its simplest form. In its simplest form identity theft is simply stealing. The origin of identity theft can be traced before the times of the internet. A popular movie was recently made called Catch Me If You Can. This movie was a dramatization of a conmans life. He made his living by presenting himself as something he was not. In this particular movie the man presented himself as a person that was of various professions so he could many times to commit check fraud.
This movie helps to demonstrate the origin of identity theft. This form of thievery eventually developed into modern day identity theft. Conmen and thieves have simply become better at it. Today, unscrupulous people are able to use various sources (the internet and e mail for one) to essentially impersonate not a profession, but an individual.
One of the ways they are able to do this is via e mail. An email sent to an unsuspecting victim can contain a virus that can help a person to infiltrate your computer and gain personal information about you. Never open emails that are not from people you know or that are unexpected. Particularly read the name of the person an email is from and the subject line of the email. In many cases these will be misspelled or obvious spam. Never open these spam emails. Keep your computers anti virus program updated and running in the background at all times.
Another way these criminals are able to get information is by simply checking the trash that leaves your house. Never throw away paperwork that shows your social security number, birth date, account numbers, or other identify information.
Regardless of the origin of identity theft, individuals need to be careful with their person information to protect themselves from becoming a victim of this crime.
Click here and protect your identity from the risk of theft.
Tags: origin of identity theft, identity theft
Tags: identity theft
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