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by Frank W. Abagnale
Stealing Your Life is more frightening than a gory murder mystery. Any one of us, from cradle to grave, is vulnerable to a swindle that can wreck us emotionally, cost us serious money, ruin our credit ratings, and take us years to straighten out. Identity theft is here to stay, and as long as legislators, businesses, law enforcement agencies, and individuals fail to take it seriously, the number of victims will continue to climb.
For thirty-two years, the author has been a law-abiding citizen; his criminal past, famously recounted in the book and film "Catch Me If You Can," is a distant memory. However, he knows how crooks think, and this knowledge has led to a lucrative career as a consultant for the FBI and corporations all over the world in preventing frauds and scams. Abagnale is horrified at how easy and tempting identity theft is for the budding criminal. He calls it "a crook's dream come true."
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Identity Theft by Phishing
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Identity Theft in a Shrinking World
Identity theft and fraud was already a multibillion-dollar criminal industry back in the 1990s.
Although the NUMBER of identity fraud cases in on the decline, the TOTAL COST to America is on an up trend. In the last couple of years, total figures jumped by $2 billion additional dollars lost to identity theft.
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One of the reasons for this identity theft up trend is that the American consumer market sits like a big, vulnerable target on the face of the globe. Robust American consumerism contributes to this vulnerability. So does an increasingly plastic economy.
The problem becomes worse when you consider that not only have industries and technologies all over the world gone global, so has crime.
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Identity Theft Using US Commerce & Law
In one of the most remarkable cases of gang identity theft and fraud activities in recent years, the Wo Hop To case stands out. Not only did the Asian gang use legitimate American cardholders, it also used federal laws to keep the racket going!
The gang had a lready set up a veritable counterfeit credit card factory in the US, importing everything from machines to magnetic strips from Hong Kong. Even a sort of identity theft quality-control process was set up: a gang member would try out the fake cards at restaurants, gas stations, and stores.
And then they got creative.
Identity Theft - Creating a “Win-Win” Situation
The gang started recruiting genuine credit cardholders, asking them to OVERPAY their monthly bills with counterfeit bank checks. Once the recruit's account was credited, the recruit and a gang member would go on a shopping spree.
The gang would then fence the goods and the recruit would get some of the proceeds. Eventually, the gang would use federal bankruptcy laws to have the recruit avoid any liability by filing for credit protection!
It succeeded because it was so easy to get recruits. The recruits felt protected by federal laws AND it was so lucrative!
One recruit pocketed a total of $615,000 inside 12 months!
After the dust settled, everyone who participated in this massive scam had cost MasterCard and Visa over $100 million, affecting over a hundred financial institutions.
To this day, credit card fraud is the leading culprit in identity theft cases throughout America, judging by the complaints received by the FTC.
When the notorious Asian gang case happened in the mid-1990s, experts predicted that credit cards would cease to exist in the next few years and that all transactions (i.e., credit, debit, ATM, etc.) would be unified into one plastic card. Moreover, even filing for a loan would remove humans from the equation, using purely plastic and machine (as in an ATM machine).
They were dead wrong.
Identity theft has put America on the defensive and the scenarios experts predicted appear to be still a decade or two away.
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Index of Articles about Indentity Theft
What Other Authors say about Indentify Theft
Getting Past Identity Theft
by Tony Robinson
Getting past identity theft nowadays is next to impossible. The World Wide Web has made it easier for identity thieves to gain access to millions of files by merely tracing tracks. When a person goes onto... Identity theft is an ongoing crime, that in the year of 2004 alone more than eleven million victims lost their identity. Now that we are in recession, the world is in chaos more so than ever and many people... One of the most popular computer identity theft methods today is phishing. Spelled in true hacker fashion, phishing means, well, fishing by baiting people to divulge their personal data. This mode of computer... Medical identity theft costs the American insurance industry as much as $180 billion annually. The reason for this is that transactions are increasingly depending on the Internet to expedite processes,... Identity theft victims are on the rise and as the years go by more and more people are falling into the hands of these perpetrators. Now that our economy is in recession, it is especially time to protect... Commercial identity theft can refer to any of three things. It can involve the thief accessing a firm's credit account. It can also mean the identity thief targeting all the employees in an organization.... That is what identity theft is, according to the FBI. But simplest definition of identity theft is when someone steals your name and personal data to commit fraud, often for financial gain. The most common... The early history of identity theft is closely allied with the history of the credit card. First appearing in American literature in the mid 1990s, identity theft's first targets were said to be consumers.... Reading articles on identity theft may not sound appealing to you, but if you think that you are not subject to becoming the next target then you are fooling your self and setting your self up as an easy... The most pressing identity theft fact today is that Americans have become more vulnerable than ever before to all types of identity fraud and theft. As we manage more of our lives online and transact more... Identity theft is a growing problem in the United States, occurring in small towns and cities alike. Identity theft, as defined by the federal government, refers to the use of another person's identity... |
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