Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
each legal swipe through a cash register with an illegal swipe through a
skimmer
, a small,
battery-powered credit card reader. Identity theft rings use numbers collected this way
to manufacture counterfeit credit cards.
Surprisingly, 14 percent of the cases of identity theft identified in 2010 were
“friendly thefts” in which family members, friends, or in-house employees made pur-
chases without the account holder's consent [74].
Still, a significant number of people are victims of identity theft through their online
activities. Gathering financial information via spam is called
phishing
(pronounced
“fishing”). Thieves send out spam messages designed to look like they originated from
PayPal, eBay, or another well-known Internet-active business. Through these messages
they hope to con unsuspecting recipients into connecting with authentic-looking Web
sites and revealing their credit card numbers or other personal information.
For example, a victim might receive an email message purportedly from PayPal,
asking the person to go to the PayPal Web site to confirm a transaction. The email
message contains a hypertext link. When the victim clicks on the link, he is connected
to the counterfeit PayPal site. Phishing, spyware, and other online methods resulted in
more than a million cases of identity theft in the United States in 2008 [75].
The stereotypical victim of identity theft is an elderly person who isn't computer
savvy, but the facts speak otherwise. The average age of a victim of identity theft is 40.
Many victims are experienced computer users who have become comfortable typing in
their credit card information while online [76].
The Identity Theft and Assumption Act of 1998 makes identity theft a federal crime.
In 2004 Congress passed the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act, which length-
ened prison sentences for identity thieves [77]. A variety of law enforcement agencies
investigate alleged violations of this law: the US Secret Service, the FBI, the US Postal
Inspection Service, and the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Ad-
ministration [78]. Unfortunately, the probability that a particular case of identity theft
will result in an arrest is about 1 in 700 [79].
Instant messaging
is a real-time communication between two or more people supported
by computers and a telecommunications system. A
chat room
is similar to instant mes-
saging, except that it supports discussions among many people. A large number of orga-
nizations sponsor chat rooms dedicated to a wide variety of topics. For example, in July
2009, America Online's “Chats” page listed hundreds of chat rooms divided into 30 gen-
eral categories, including Arts and Entertainment, Black Voices, Friends & Flirts, GLBT,
Latino, Life, Places, Politics, Romance, and Town Square.
The popularity of instant messaging varies from country to country. According to
Nielsen/NetRatings, the number of people who used instant messaging between January
and March of 2002 varied from 13 percent of all Internet users in Denmark to 43 percent
in Spain [80]. Participation in chat rooms also varies from country to country. According
to the same survey, the number of people with Internet accounts who participated
