Many of us have made friends across the globe and are better people because of it. No doubt identity thieves hope that people continue to make more friends, refer more people to join in the social networking phenomenon and keep sharing all that good personal information.
True identity theft (real world as apposed to the virtual world) has been on the decline over the recent years. However, fraud prevention has not been the only force in the fight against ID theft, statistics have shown that not only has the economic crisis took its toll on us, but also on the fraudsters themselves.
identity theft refers to a fraud when someone pretends to be some other person to steal their money or receive any other benefits. The term ‘identity theft‘ was defined in 1964 and is a misnomer, as it isn’t possible to steal identities, they can be just used to perform other illegal acts.
identity theft is also called inaccurate credit reporting. It is the fastest growing crime in America. According to the Washington Post, in 2008, “reported” data breached increased 47% over 2007 and it will continue to occur and thieves will continue to find ingenious methods to hijack and sell your personal information.