Monday, February 12, 2007

Introduction


Identity theft can be anything from someone hacking into your MSN and pretending to be you to someone stealing and using your social security number. Identity Theft is when someone, without your permission, uses your personal information instead of their own. One thing for sure is identity theft is serious. People can lose hundreds of dollars and not even know it. They can be denied loans and job opportunities because of things they didn’t do, but someone did in their name. One can even be arrested for a crime one didn’t commit. It is possible for someone to not know that their identity is being used for a long period of time!

Identity Theft has been going on for ages, today being aware of identity theft is becoming increasingly important to Internet safety. It is easy to pretend to be someone else on the Internet because, you are not meeting people face to face. It is next to impossible to tell if someone is who they really say they are. The Internet is often used in Identity Theft to gain information. Through forms filled out through shopping sites, fake surveys, and chat sites a potential theft can found out so much about anyone. Hacking is another way someone can gain access to your personal information.