Identity Theft

A crime in which a person pretends to be another person for the purpose of using his/her financial information for personal gain. Identity theft can be fairly basic; for example, one may steal and use a credit card. Often, however, identity theft involves using computer programs to find a person's financial information and conduct large transactions with that person's money. Identity theft is a serious crime, as it can ruin the victim's credit, making it difficult to obtain a loan when one is needed. Many banks and credit card companies provide identity theft protection to reduce a client's liability for identity theft and to minimize its occurrence.

Identity theft.

Identity theft is the unauthorized use of your personal information, such as your name, address, Social Security number, or credit account information.

People usually steal your identity to make purchases or obtain credit, though they may also use the data to apply for a driver's license or other form of official identification.

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References in periodicals archive

Major Key Features Covered in Global Identity Theft Protection Services Market Report:

Identify Hidden Opportunities of Identity Theft Protection Services Market / LifeLock, Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, FICO

In summary, the ITAP project makes the following contributions: it gathers, models, and analyzes a large number (currently about 5,400) of identity theft news stories.

Identity Threat Assessment and Prediction

Reversing the damage caused by identity theft is often a frustrating and complex process for victims.

Identity theft remains on IRS' 'Dirty Dozen' list despite progress

Mobile Identity Theft Preventer is now available from both ShieldApps Software Innovations' website as well as their official Google Play Store channel in the following link: https://play.google.com/stor /apps/details?id=identitytheft.preventer.

ShieldApps Adds Android Protection to Its Identity Theft Protection Suite

Despite the best efforts to prevent identity theft, it may still occur.

Identity theft: tax and financial considerations

Identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), was the top complaint the FTC received for the past 15 years, increasing 47% from 2014 to 2015 as a result of a massive increase in tax-related identity theft (see "FTC Releases Annual Summary of Consumer Complaints," March 1,2016).

Breaking bad news to victims of identity theft: lessons from medical doctors; CPAs can better help clients who are victims of identity theft by learning counseling techniques usually used by medical professionals

An increase in the number of data breaches in the United States has led to public concern about protection against identity theft. In 2014, 1,343 breaches in the United States exposed more than 512 million records (Risk Based Security 2015).

Data breach notification laws

For individual identity theft, in order to be able to deal directly with the IRS on a client's behalf, the tax practitioner should file IRS Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative, signed by the taxpayer to obtain a power of attorney (POA).

Assisting clients with tax-related identity theft

A report from the Treasury inspector general for tax administration indicated 1.63 million taxpayers were victims of tax identity theft in 2013.

Equifax, H&R Block address threat of tax identity theft

The survey found girls were more worried about identity theft than boys, the report added.

76% of American teens concerned about online privacy: Survey