Identity Theft Who is at Fault, Consumers, or Credit Card...

Identity theft is the stealing and use of someone’s personal information and is one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation (Dole, 2005). According to Federal Trade Commission estimates, identity thieves victimize approximately 10 million Americans every year at a cost of an astonishing $50 billion (2005). Identity theft has been going on for years now and is easily done with the help of today’s technology. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there are six common ways that identity thieves get a hold of personal information. The varieties of methods that are used are dumpster diving, skimming, phishing, changing the victim’s address, stealing, and pretexting (Federal Trade Commission). Once someone’s identity is stolen,†¦show more content†¦Credit card companies are not aware and do not make credit cards that can detect skimming devices. While using the internet, becoming a victim of phishing is very common. Between January 2005 and January 2006, more than 190,000 different phishing scams were reported (Privacy Matters). Phishing works on consumers because of poor consumer education and awareness. According to a study done by Harvard University and UC Berkeley called â€Å"Why Phishing Works,† 90% of subjects in the study were unable to pick out a highly effective phishing e-mail when simply judging whether it was genuine (Privacy Matters). Even though all of these things are somewhat out of the credit card companies control there still should be actions from the credit card companies to prevent the use of the information stolen from being used. Being a victim of identity theft myself, I know the struggles of dealing with this topic. The credit card companies are at fault because of their lack of security when it comes to credit card usage and existing information. Credit card fraud is the easiest to commit and the most common. The Bureau of Justice did a study in 2007 with 7.9 billion people surveyed on how many households with at least one member of the household has been a victim of identity theft. The statistics showed that existing credit card theft increased from 2005 to 2007 by 31% and with 6.6% of people, beingShow MoreRelatedProtecting Yourself from Identity Theft Essay1745 Words   |  7 Pagesdown. You pick up the mail and notice a letter from a credit card company you don’t have a contract with. Slowly, you open the envelope, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, pure terror fills you as you stare at a bill for over five thousand dollars. You reassure yourself and say this obviously must be some mistak e. You never opened this credit card account, but yet it’s in your name and it is your address. You may not believe it, but your identity has been stolen and now someone is out there posingRead MoreIdentity Theft Essay1749 Words   |  7 Pagesdown. 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