Identity Theft In today’s society, there is a white-collar crime that has greatly risen in popularity among criminals. This crime is identity theft. Hundreds of thousands of people have their identities stolen each year. Identity theft is when these criminals obtain and use consumers personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, insurance information, and social security numbers to purchase goods or services fraudulently.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, over 1. 1 million people were the victim of identity theft. With this number, it is very evident that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in our country. This paper will attempt to more thoroughly define identity theft. It will …show more content… As one can see, stealing someone?s identity is a very easy thing and can also be done in a number of different ways.
In 1999, an unsuspecting attorney by the name of Rosalie Pugliese was a victim of identity theft. Over a six-week period, not only did the thief run up over sixty-thousand dollars worth of goods and steal credit cards, but also the thief went on to impersonate her victim. In the Post-Gazette on August 26, 1999, staff writer Cristina Rouvalis wrote, ?The fraudulent purchases trickled in at first — a $2,700 bill on a First Union credit card and a $18. 74 AT&T cell phone bill in mid-December. Pugliese canceled both accounts — which she had never even applied for — and dismissed them as the work of a petty thief doing Christmas shopping on her dime. ? The bills included an $8,000 cash advance at Atlantic City casinos, six thousand dollars worth of jewelry, and a seven thousand dollar Compaq laptop computer, just to name a few.
This particular identity thief went above and beyond what most identity thieves do though. ?As investigators would soon discover, Pugliese’s evil twin didn’t just steal her name to rack up about $60,000 in debt. She stole her whole appearance, they said. She fixed her hair like Pugliese’s — a medium-length blond cut — and sometimes tied a crisp scarf .
