Biismihi taala
TFIMN awareness Programme on Cyber Threats
IDENTITY THEFT (II)
The magnitude of the risk of falling into the trap of stolen identity(ies) cannot be easily downplayed. It’s termed Identity Theft, a ploy that involves the crime of obtaining the personal or financial information of another person to use their identity to commit fraud, such as making unauthorized transactions or purchases. Identity theft, when committed, affects its victims in different ways. These include damage to their credit, finances, and reputation.
Just imagine a scenario where a victim gets robbed, and, with a damaged reputation gets investigated or even prosecuted by security forces when his innocence becomes too difficult to prove. What a compounded situation!
There are various forms of Identity Theft, but the most common are of Financial, Criminal, Child and Medical nature.
Financial Identity Theft, as can be expected, is the most common. It occurs when someone uses information on another person or organization to procure goods, services or information. In this manner, victims are often impersonated to steal goods and services or induce fraudulent financial transactions.
Medical Identity Theft occurs when one slyly identifies as another person to procure free medical care, which is often under a medical insurance.
You might be surprised to learn of Child Identity Theft but it exists too. It is common among those who know the child and are confident that the child wouldn’t see through their ploy. Such a child’s identity can be used to obtain some gains or even evade arrest. It is also commonly used to gain employment or residence.
As for Criminal Identity Theft, it covers many areas. In the corporate arena, it may involve impersonation of influential corporate personnel on social media or via email communications to damage their reputation or initiate fraudulent transactions. It may also stretch to serious intrusions into a company network along with compromise of important accounts.
Other forms of Identity theft include Tax Identity Theft, synthetic Identity Theft and Social Security Identity Theft.
Signed:
September 12th, 2021 / Safar 4th, 1443
