Identity Theft: What's in a Name

Thanks to the internet, life has been easy. In a way, the online world is like a really large drive-thru-from the comfort of home, people can do almost anything with a few clicks of the mouse. They can shop, pay bills, switch banks, adopt pets, donate to charities, search for new jobs and even gamble. However, with conveniences comes consequence. While the internet does make a lot of things quick and easy, there is an impersonal quality inherent to online business. And while this quality makes interpersonal communication a little hard, it also makes trust a large issue, especially concerning identity theft.

A New Crime for a New Century

The internet, in many ways, has proven detrimental to the ability of individuals to communicate face-to-face. With IMs, chat rooms, message boards and blogs, people can live entirely virtual lives, from friendships to relationships, careers to hobbies. However, the anonymous nature of the internet works both ways, and just as good people can be a little more open online, bad people can be a little more deceiving.

Identity theft is just that-the theft of one's identity. Personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and even credit card data can be easily stolen over the internet, without one ever knowing they have been victimized. With the information gathered through identity theft, criminals can literally ruin the lives of innocent internet users-they can, in essence, lose who they are.

Unlike most crimes, identity theft can take years to fix, and a lifetime to forget. Identity theft literally ruins lives because it steals those lives-victims are never the same afterward because they have to restructure their lives in order to move past the crime. In the past, identity theft could be performed through stealing paperwork, searching through dumpsters or by diverting mail. However, with the birth of the internet, identity theft has become even easier because of the overwhelming amount of information sent daily through email and websites.

If individuals are not careful, they could easily be playing right into the hands of a criminal, and the internet will no longer seem like such a friendly place. With the information gathered through identity theft, criminals can do far more than shop-they can open new credit card accounts, change billing addresses, create counterfeit checks, clone ATM and debit cards, take out loans, get jobs and even receive driver's licenses or official identity cards in the names of their victims, allowing them to literally live the lives of strangers.