Life in color

Identity theft is a major problem in the United States and is growing ever year. In 2003, identity theft cost business and consumers close to $53 billion and identities stolen from around 10 million Americans (Dinev 77). Identity theft is where someone can pretend to be someone else, and to make financial charges under the victim’s name, leaving all the troubles of fixing the victim’s financial troubles to the victim while the theft continues to steal until they either are caught or move on to another victim (Vacca 4). In 1998, identity theft became illegal even though this issue has been around for ages (Hoffman and McGinley 1). The traditional way of identity theft is “pinched wallet or pilfered mail” also is known as “dumpster diving” (Yount 71).Also, the Internet plays a big role in identity theft. In the Internet, a thief can hide from detection while stealing peoples’ identities from their homes, being able to steal peoples’ information one by one “then disappearing into another identity,” (Vacca 60). Internet users must know about the risk of online identity theft, so that they can protect themselves from this threat.
Most criminals are smart and clever; they are finding new ways to steal peoples’ personal information every day. For example, phishing is when someone receives an email saying that there is a problem that needs to be fix immediately; included was a hyperlink to the site, but the site the person is direct to is a brilliantly created fake that looks just like the original but instead steals the information that person provided (Sheetz 93). People blame themselves all the time if their identities are stolen because they think they were too careless with their information. However, phishing is hard not to fall for since the sites are so well organized and almost exact clones of the original sites. This situation occurred with Brielle LaCosta who received a email that said her account was suspended and when she click the provided hyperlink, the