Identity Theft: What Does It Mean?

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes all over the world. Millions of people fall victim to identity theft every year, and this number is set to increase significantly in the future. Yet, the term identity theft has gained currency in recent past only. So, what exactly is identity theft? Well, it is not possible to steal a person’s identity as such. What it means is that the ID of the person concerned is used without his or her knowledge, usually for fraudulent purposes.  

The theft of identity involves a fraudulent use of the victim’s identity to derive a benefit, stealing money or committing some other crime. The thief assumes the identity of the victim during such an act. The victim learns of this much later, and has to suffer the consequences of this fraud.

Identity theft can assume numerous forms. Yet, the cases of identity theft can be divided into seven broad categories:

Financial Identity Theft:

This is the most common form of identity theft. In fact, people commonly understand identity theft in this context. Financial identity theft involves using the personal information of a person to obtain a bank loan or credit cards or for opening or taking over a bank account in the name of the victim. The personal details used are all real, and turn out to be true in case the involved financial institution or the bank checks it against the available data. The victim learns of this only after the perpetrator defaults on the payments, and the victim is contacted for the collection of the dues.

Identity Cloning and Impersonation:

This is another form of identity theft. In this form, the criminal takes the identity of another person, again with the real information and identifiers of the victim. To further boost his credibility and to make the fraud more convincing, the criminal may even acquire fake identity cards and other documents in the name of the victim. This form of identity theft is more difficult to detect, since it does not involve financial fraud. It is generally done by illegal immigrants or criminals on the run.

Criminal Identity Theft:

This form of identity theft is named so because it is used by criminals to evade arrest by law enforcement agencies. The criminal uses the name and fake or stolen documents of the victim to identify himself. The name of the victim is thus entered into police records, and the victim may face difficulties in future if the criminal skips bail or runs away after committing some crime. The victim may also face problems in employment, since a lot of employers do background checks.

Synthetic Identity Theft:

This is a rather recent variation of the identity theft. In this, the criminal uses a completely or partially fabricated identity. This is mostly intended to defraud banks and financial institutions. Therefore, rather than harming any real person, this affects the creditors.

Phishing:

With the rapid advent of internet, another form of identity theft has become prevalent. This is called “phishing”. Anyone with access to internet and e-mail must be aware of this. In this, the criminal presents a site very similar in appearance to a trusted or popular site, and lures the unsuspecting customers to reveal sensitive and personal information, such as credit card numbers and account passwords. Another form is sending out e-mails or instant messages with links to such fake sites. It is estimated that total financial losses due to phishing in 2007 amounted to more than $3 billions in US alone.

Pharming:

This is another form of identity theft that is exclusively related to internet use. It is a rather wholesale theft of identity, done on a large scale. It is a hacker induced attack, in which the criminal diverts the whole traffic to a website to another, fake website. The scary thing about this type of identity theft is that it cannot be tackled on an individual level, for example, by using anti-virus or anti-phishing software. It needs a much larger and sophisticated expertise to fight against pharming.

Ghosting:

This form of identity theft is the rarest, and has provided the grist to a large number of novels and movies. In this, the criminal assumes the identity of a long dead person. The only requirement is that the ages of the criminal and the (dead) victim should roughly be the same. In the famous novel ‘The Day of the Jackal’, the Jackal commits ghosting by assuming the identity of a dead child. In fact, ghosting is also called the “Jackal Fraud”!

The problem of identity theft is a rapidly growing one. In the US alone, the annual losses due to identity theft incidents are estimated to be more than $ 50 billions! Of this, more than 90% is accounted by businesses. It is also estimated that every year, about 9 million Americans becomes victims of identity theft! It is indeed the fastest growing crime.