Internet Identity theft among fastest growing crimes

[superconnected]

Internet identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the U.S. today. For five straight years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ranked it as one of the most-reported types of fraud. Despite the increasing awareness of identity theft among consumers and financial institutions, the identity-theft racket shows no signs of slowing. Reported losses from identity theft, currently responsible for over 40 percent of all fraud complaints, approached nearly $300 million last year.

"True identity theft is a problem that goes far beyond simple credit-card fraud, against which consumers are fully protected, thanks to zero-liability laws and other regulations," said Dave Collett, a spokesperson for MasterCard. "ID theft is when a person's entire identity is taken over. For that to happen, a fraudster would need far more information than just what is found on a credit or debit card."

All too often, consumers provide that needed information unknowingly through careless Web surfing and by using computers whose security is breached by virus and spyware infections.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060425/bs_nf/42950

[benburch]

1. Non-internet ID theft happened to a friend of mine.

The woman who stole her ID even had breast implants on her credit...

[Demobrat]

3. Did they catch her?

What happened?

[benburch]

4. Nope!

And it took my friend three years of pure hell to restore her credit and get the lawsuits against her dealt with.

[LexMan81]

2. why they are doing that

i hope no one do that to me

[WhiteTara]

5. why? For money.

I hope no one does that to you either.
Welcome to DU LexMan81 :hi: