1. Identity Theft
Chelsea Weser

2. Definition
Fraud leading to the acquisition of money or other benefits by pretending to be another person.

3. The 4 Types of Identity Theft
Descriptions
Financial identity theft
Using another's identity to obtain goods and services
Criminal identity theft
Posing as another when apprehended for a crime
Identity cloning
Using another's information to assume his or her identity in daily life
Business/Commercial identity theft
Using another's business name to obtain credit

4. Crimes illegal immigration terrorism espionage blackmail
to attack payment systems, including online credit card processing and medical insurance

5. How Criminals Get Your Information In most cases, a criminal needs to obtain personally identifiable information or documents about an individual in order to impersonate them.
Stealing mail or trash
Researching about the victim in government registers or internet search engines
Stealing payment or identification cards
Eavesdropping on public transactions to obtain personal data
Stealing personal information in computer databases
Advertising bogus job offers (either full-time or work from home based) to which the victims will reply with their information
Infiltration of organizations that store large amounts of personal information
Browsing sites, online for personal details that have been posted by users

6. How to Protect Yourself:
Go over this checklist -

7. Impact
The average fraud per person decreased from $4,789 in 2003 to $1,882 in 2006.
Total value of identity fraud from US$47.6 billion in 2003 to $15.6 billion in 2006

8. Case Study
(CBS) A restaurant busboy is accused of using the Internet and Forbes Magazine's list of the richest people in America in a scheme to steal millions from such figures as Steven Spielberg, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey and Ted Turner.