There are three main types of identity crimes: identity theft, identity fraud, and account takeover. Identity theft involves stealing someone's personal information. Identity fraud is using stolen or fake identities for ethical or unethical purposes. Account takeover occurs when a fraudster uses someone's identity information like an email to access unauthorized financial or personal accounts. Globalization and technology like hacking, phishing, and spyware have made identity crimes easier to commit from anywhere. Careless behavior and oversharing of information online and in documents discarded without shredding also contribute to identity losses, with a survey finding that every minute sees 19 new victims.

4. There are three main types of identity crimes
 First comes, identity theft. As the name suggests, stealing
somebody else’s personal information is termed as identity
theft.
 Next comes, identity fraud. Using any stolen or fictitious
identity for other purposes, be it ethical or unethical.
 And the last is account takeover. When a fraudster uses
any other identity or its part such as an email address to
gain access to financial accounts or any other personal
account, the access of which is not authorized by them,
such events account to account takeover.

5.  Identity may seem as a general and universal term and such
information is possessed by all.
 The thirst of more has indulged people to adopt unethical
ways for the satisfaction of their desires.
 Obviously, they do not want to disclose themselves for their
untrue practices and thus the reason arises for identity
crimes.

7. Globalization has brought in many benefits but it has
also facilitated cyber thieves with a higher degree of
freedom. With the absence of cyber borders, thieves
can access anywhere to and from within or beyond the
nation.

8. The scope of identity crimes has stretched its arms
further. The crimes now range from banking frauds
to employment frauds.

9. Age no longer stays bar for the crimes.
There are an increasing number of
culprits aged under 30.

10. Social media is another important source of
acquiring information.
Experts are calling these social media sites (Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn) as ‘hunting grounds’.

11. Technology plays a significant part for these crimes. Practices
such as hacking, phishing and skimming are widely used to
extract information. Viruses and spyware equally assist in this.

12. The careless behavior of individuals leaving their documents
and storage devices on desks or throwing them away in
garbage or recycle bins leads to physical theft of the
information.
A survey reveals that
“Every minute creates 19 victims of identity loss.”

13. Measures to be taken against

14.  Ensure that your hard drives are encrypted and secured
with passwords.
 Be cautious with respect to the information being shared
online through various social platforms.
 Keep all the documents and information secure. Use an
effective system for document management that also
includes provisions for disposal and destruction along with
data acquisition and usage. Also get endorsed for shredding
services.
 Employee training schedule shall feature programs creating
awareness for data security and dependable data storage
ways and mediums. Clean Desk Policy shall stand
mandatory in the organization.

15. For Further Queries
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