Identity Theft Security

A day after purchasing a magazine online, you received quite a number of calls from different sources offering one product over another. Months after, you received statements from credit companies containing items apparently purchased somewhere around the globe and has maximized the credit limit. Weeks later upon opening your door, an enforcement officer greeted you with a warrant of arrest for breaking the law. Effects vary from absurd to outrageous, but all these and more are signs that the bizarre was not so bizarre after all. You’ve been a victim of identity theft.

Identity theft has been a pressing problem since time immemorial. In the 1960′s it was even immortalized in a film entitled Catch Me If You Can. This was based from a true story of an identity thief named Frank Abagnale Jr., who, at 19, has already pretended to be a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer. He was so successful at doing cheque forgery that he has obtained millions of dollars at a very young age. Like what was done on the film, identity theft takes one or both two major forms: identity fraud or what is commonly known as impersonation, where one pretends to be someone else by obtaining real identification proofs and just altering the pictures; or false identity where one obtains false identifications to create another fictitious character. Both however, aim to steal someone else’s properties. The film was later adapted by Steven Spielberg, and the role of Abagnale was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio.

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