While watching The Office the other day I saw an episode where Jim, the office prankster, comes in dressed like Dwight, an annoying paper salesman. At first Dwight doesn’t realize that Jim is making fun of him, but after Jim starts to argue with Dwight about bears (Dwight’s favorite animal), he becomes enraged and shouts, “Identity theft is not a joke, Jim!”
While I hate to admit that Dwight may be right about something, he brings up an important point. Identity theft is not a joke – in fact it is a very serious problem that can have significant ramifications for those who have had their identities stolen.
What is identity theft?
Identity theft can be defined as a type of fraud where the criminal pretends to be someone other than himself with the intent of personal gain. One of the most common types of identity theft is financial identity theft, which is the act of using another’s identity to obtain goods and services.
A classic example of financial identity theft is bank fraud, where the criminal uses a fraudulently obtained social security number, address and other forms of identification to apply for a loan under the victim’s name. Once the criminal has received the proceeds from the loan he disappears, leaving behind a fraudulent loan on his victim’s credit and a serious headache.
Preventing identity theft
The easiest way to prevent identity theft is to never share your personal information with anyone that you don’t trust. While there have been many cases where personal information has been sold by a corporation’s disgruntled employee, most often criminals come into contact with sensitive materials through other means, such as:
- Stealing mail
- Retrieving information from old discarded computers
- Pickpocketing
- Hacking
- Digging through rubbish bins
Identity theft is a growing problem in today’s increasingly electronic world. It’s important that you learn how to protect your identity so you don’t end up paying thousands of dollars out of your own pocket trying to restore your (once good) name. Now that you know a little bit more about identity theft it’s time to take a look at a few common identity theft scams.
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4 responses to “Identity Theft is No Laughing Matter”
Great tips! Identity theft really is becoming a huge problem in this day and age. It’s a real shame that people would cause so much harm to others by stealing their “good name.”
Oh and great reference to The Office! I love that show!
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I find this to be a wonderful piece of advice. I hate it that we are a society that has to be so careful and worry about our every move because someone out there is evil. Great article.