Identity Theft

With increased collection of online data, coupled with ever increasing interactions by individuals online, the potential for identity theft has also increased. These new interactions and data storage make it easier to obtain someone else's personal information, and more importantly, allow for rapid deployment of damaging methods across a wide spectrum with the added benefit of making it much more difficult to prosecute an issue.

In the old days, identity theft still occurred, however basic logical issues such as location, physical presence and direct human monitoring made it more difficult for someone to get away with something for long, and simple data manipulation was not sufficient alone to fool safeguards. For example, if you were a senior citizen and went into a bank to get a mortgage, the banker would expect to see a senior citizen in the correct town or city, asking for things generally in line with expectations. If something seemed off, added scrutiny would kick in.

Nowadays, the theft of personal information and the automation of many things makes the theft and quick exploitation of that data child's play by comparison. The most common form of identity theft is based on financial theft, where the data is used to either exploit existing financing such as credit cards, lines of credit and bank accounts, or to establish new forms of credit , relying on general good credit to obtain what can be created. These schemes are set up to run across international boundaries, making the tracing of material to make arrests that much more difficult. They are also set up to scoop up large amounts of info, use them for their intended purpose of extracting whatever real money possible, then dumping the identity for the next, maximizing profit while minimizing risk.

The other popular form of identity theft (albeit a distant second in terms of usage), is the targeted form of identity theft. This form can be significantly more damaging to an individual as malice is the motivating factor as opposed to financial gain. This type of identity theft can also focus not just on financial (and often ignores financial completely), but will focus on social and online interactions to discredit an individual's reputation and relationships.

Tracing identity theft can be a complex and expensive affair. Law enforcement may be able to conduct an investigation, but due to limited resources, they will normally only be able to look into severe or referred cases without investigation ahead of time. This is where a private investigator can come in and provide consulting assistance, and conduct the investigation to usually stop, and in some cases bring down those responsible. Give a local PI a call to see how they can help out!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca