How Identity Theft Has Become A Fashionable Crime

The author of popular thriller, later made into a film, was responsible for a few cases of identity theft. The protagonist is an international criminal who obtains a convenient identity by applying for a duplicate identity document in the name of a deceased person. Since the appearance of the film several people have proved that truth can be as strange as fiction by following exactly the same method of acquiring a false name and passport.

Some people might decide in a somewhat extempore fashion after seeing the film or reading the book to create a new identity for themselves. People born with silver spoons in their mouths are fewer by far than those born to toil and trouble. The majority of people on the planet must have wished at least once or twice to be someone else.

But beyond any of the romance that may be associated with the adventure of becoming someone else is the banal reality of crime. Immoral, cunning people exist who are intent on using others for their own benefit without conscience. The Internet world in which people are known by profiles set up on a data bases is the perfect playground for them. They do not even have to look people in the eyes and lie to them.

Few of the acts essential for a smooth life can be accomplished without a few essential numbers and documents. Identity documents and social security numbers can seem to amount to the whole of a person. The term 'identity theft' is really a figure of speech in which a part is used as though it represents that whole of something. The effect of this rhetorical device is to convey the enormity of what is a serious crime.

The prevalence of this kind of misdemeanor can be accounted for by the complexity of society. The Internet has spawned a plethora of new devices and the options and applications that go with them. The human population is faced with a bewildering set of ethical and moral issues that keep dissolving and coalescing into new configurations.

Criminals know that if they can obtain the data that needs to be filled in on forms that pop up on a screen they can purchase items online that will be charged to someone else. Because the Internet is an essentially impersonal environment it can be difficult to get money back or bring a criminal to book. Credit card fraud can be seen as an aspect of banking practice. In same cases it can be difficult to distinguish between the two.

Private hackers do not have to arm themselves with guns and disguises. They can sit safely at home before a computer breaking and entering sites that are the property of others. In some cases they may steal government or corporate data, but in others they may go for personal information that can be used in a multitude of dishonest ways, from blackmail to embezzlement and theft, 

Child identity theft is a particularly despicable crime because the victims are young and vulnerable. The social security numbers maybe very useful to criminals whose own credibility might be as foul as a badly polluted drain. They may use a fresh and clean set of data and their victim could become a crook without knowing it until he tries open his first bank account.


Identity Theft Is A Common Crime

The man responsible for quite a few cases of identity theft was a novelist. He wrote a spy thriller about an international killer who acquired false documents by visiting a graveyard and applying for a birth certificate of a person who had died. In the course of obtaining his false documents he had to kill a man with a rabbit punch but that may not always be necessary.

Less dramatic cases of people who wish to evade airport surveillance or run away from an angry and grasping spouse exist. They might have seen the film first and then been prompted to follow the procedure as a way of solving a problem. Yet more frivolously many people must have wished themselves at least once in their lives to start afresh as someone else and the film could easily put wild ideas in their heads.

Beyond the fictional fascination of obtaining a false identity is the sordid banality of a crime that is growing faster that most other forms of dishonesty. Since the 1980s the world has been transformed by communication technology. In many ways things have improved immeasurably but among the many opportunities that are newly available online are those that can be exploited by people who are cunning, malevolent and malevolent.

A person is far more than a handful of papers and plastic cards, so the term 'identity theft' is really a figure of speech which captures the seriousness of a crime in which the theft of a set of essential documents equates with a whole life. Without a few pieces of paper that can be kept in a handbag or back pocket life can be almost impossible. Cash cannot be obtained and applications for things like phones or licenses become futile.

Although essential documents may be few in number they are the keys to a social environment that has become so complex that some people have begun to wonder whether the world is driven by clever technologists or the technology they have invented. For young and old the boundaries between the ethical and the unethical have begun to blur.

Online fraud is the easy outcome after the theft of a few essential numbers and passwords. When the relevant data is filled in on a form that comes up on a screen goods can be delivered to a door by courier and if they are fairly small they may not even be noticed by someone who does not frequently check records. The impersonality of so many financial methods can make this sort of petty crime as difficult to trace as other banking transactions are.

Aside from banking fraud many other crimes of an even more sinister nature have emerged from the the practice of hacking. Sitting safely in a room a criminal can break and enter computer networks. Government, business and personal information can be stolen. The consequences can be more significant but less dangerous than setting out with a box of housebreaking tools and a handgun.

One particularly nasty form of identity theft focuses in young people as victims. They are unlikely to have bad records so crooks can take over their identity and use it for adult purposes. The child who reaches adulthood might find his credit and criminal thoroughly sullied as he emerges innocently into adulthood.


The Contemporary Crime Of Identity Theft

The writer of a spy thriller was indirectly responsible for a great deal of identity theft. In his novel he portrayed how an international hit man visited a graveyard to identify someone who had died at a certain time. Thereafter it was easy to obtain a duplicate birth certificate and all necessary documents to identify himself as a different legal entity.

It is not only hit men who need false identities. There are far more banal instances of people who are in debt or marital difficulties who wish to move from one country to another without being picked up at an airport. In some cases a person with problems which make him wish he was someone else might see the film and then decide in an ad hoc way that this might be a novel way of solving pressing problems.

Fancies and frivolities aside this form of sordid, hard-nosed theft has become the fastest growing form of crime in many parts of the world since that advent of the Internet. When bank managers were once required to know their customers there job is now done by computers that simply compute a person's financial worth. Because the look in a man's eye is now meaningless to bankers a person who has documentation attached to a name also has access to his bank.

The term 'identity theft' is really a figure of speech known as synecdoche. This is when a part is substituted for a whole. Stealing a security number or passport is not really the same as stealing his persona but the figure of speech conveys the enormity of a crime in which a person loses the few documents that intercede between the self and the world.

The industrial world seems to have faded away and been replaced by a computer driven and incredibly complex environment. The line between private and the public has become blurred. So, too, has the line between honesty and dishonesty. Many new ethical considerations face people, young and old.

Online credit card fraud can be quite easy to commit if a criminal has a few numbers and essential passwords. There is no human being behind a screen and so a certain level of conscious deception can be avoided. Perhaps it may not seem so pernicious to merely manipulate data. Some may even equate credit card fraud with the normal actions of bankers.

Even more pernicious forms of crime have surfaced on the back of connectivity. By manipulating electronic loops hackers can gain access to private information without engaging in any physical actions such as donning a mask and breaking into a house. In the safe environment of a bedroom computer criminals can steal business, government or personal information for malevolent purposes.

Data pertaining to young people may be particularly useful to criminals. Short lives are unlikely to be spoiled by bad debt or criminal records. Identity theft is such cases is a particularly heinous crime because a young person's reputation may be blighted officially before he has even begun his adult life.



