#13. Beyond Identity Theft Law
In a civilized world, having law to condemn felony is a mainstream practice to protect personal freedom of citizens. Every educated, adult knows the concept of universal right and wrong as far as execution of freedom is concerned like the way no one kills to end someone else's life. As a unique person, freedom means having one identity you claim as yours with ultimate glory. Then one day, you discover someone is using your identity; you freak out: "something is very wrong."
Identity theft law has been passed with customized decree in every federal state. It will give justice to victims whose pieces of private information are abused carelessly by usurpers. Under the "Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998," it defined how it is a crime to make unlawful use of another person's identification, which is controlled by mandatory requirement to be identified by just using name or Social Security Number.
No matter how many kinds of imposed protection is done to avoid intrusion of privacy through chains of private information through government and non-governmental listings, the problem is sieved by the clever manipulations of the offenders. Free enterprise in the U.S. made this dilemma very rampant in every exchange of business transactions through various means of handling and disseminating cash flow.
Obviously, the best source of private information is through banks and credit cards, where bulks of cash are stored for easy and convenient payment. For unknowing business person, this transgression happens after the theft has successfully caused damage. Identity theft law covers all bounds of these illegal activities through emails, mails and other transaction cards, brokerage, insurance, and other documentations involving membership.
As imposed, identity theft law could penalize villains from 15 to 30 years of imprisonment depending on the degree of fraudulent nuisance done, excluding revoked privileges and forfeiture of assets. Each state has passed legislations to act upon any kind of relevant identity theft cases. Each felony is closely monitored by the federal agency to enforce the law.
Identity theft is a very rampant and not easily toppled crime affecting lives and property of peaceful and law-abiding individuals. Before spending effort on legal suits, why not do preventive measures to avoid waste of time dealing with the consequences of being a helpless victim?
The common saying still prevails: "Prevention is better than cure." It can happen by doing the following measures:
1. Transaction monitoring - this is done by taking care of the reports of your credit billing by requesting yearly low-charged credit reports
2. Use password wisely - those not easily identified by making it remotely related to you.
3. Be wary of strangers in the house by limiting their access to private information you are keeping.
4. Know the people handling your records in the office/workplace. Make sure to verify how they dispose private information and rule out carelessness in exchanging or disclosing them to other people.
No matter how you take care of your information, there are instances where it slipped off your fingers uncontrolled depending on your daily activities. Just like other ancient crimes covered by the penalties imposed by the law, identity theft is personally damaging to one's integrity. The villains get their share of success because of vile planning in between inefficiency of law enforcement. Don't let this put you into halt with whatever goals you have. Crime will never pay.