Identity Theft Punishment - Understanding The Crime, The Trauma Caused, And The Law
As we are all well aware, as technology has advanced and changed our lives for the better, so too has technology given criminals more ways to lie, cheat, and steal from us. In particular, identity theft is on the rise and has been for a number of years now.
As the statistics clearly show, these kinds of crimes of fraud are becoming more and more popular, affecting an estimated 10 million people during the 2008 year. In this article, we are going to take a look at the the crimes, the laws protecting us and identity theft punishment.
In most cases, when people think of having their important information stolen, whether it is their social security number, bank account numbers, credit card information, etc., they tend to think that the greatest danger comes from someone obtaining it through online methods.
Most online methods are known as phishing scams, where the victim inputs personal information into a form or pop-up they believe to be legit. However, as the stats continue to show, your average information-stealing criminal will choose to go "dumpster diving" for your personal info - 43% in 2008, compared to a paltry 11% of crimes committed online. What does this mean? Simply that people need to take better care of how they dispose of papers, etc., that contain any bit of personal information. Now that you have a couple of facts about the crimes and how the criminals go about getting your information, lets take a look at the victim side of things as well as where the law stands in punishing people that commit these fraudulent crimes. Of course, for a victim of this kind of crime, there is more at stake than simply dealing with the credit companies and trying to fix a lifetimes worth of hard work, there is also the emotional stress of never feeling safe again. Thankfully, there are ways to insure that should you suffer from someone stealing your identity that you can be protected, namely a form of insurance that you can get from companies that provide protection services. Lifelock, TrustedID, idWatchdog, and Identity Guard, are just a few examples of companies that provide excellent protection. Thankfully, just a few years ago in 2004, the Penalty Enhancement Act was signed into law, which adjusted the maximum penalty for fraudulent crimes committed by stealing a persons identity. For example, initially the maximum was three years in jail, and now it is up to five years. Across the board, the penalties are much tougher on the criminals that steal peoples' lives from them, which we can all only hope will deter some of those fiends from even attempting to get away with anything. Due to the fact that these kinds of crimes continue to be on the rise, it is necessary for identity theft punishment to keep up with the very serious nature of these despicable acts, in order to ensure the safety of the average citizen's personal information.
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