According to Dictionary.com, identity theft is the the fraudulent acquisition and use of a person 's private identifying information, usually for financial gain. To have your identity stolen is an unfortunate event; it can also change your entire life for the worse. Identity theft is very common, especially with the increase in technology, and can easily happen to someone if precautions are not taken. There are a variety of ways to use as protection to try to prevent it from happening, but it is still a possibility. By not being extremely careful with all personal information, one’s risks of identity theft happening to them increases.
One can take precautions on their own along with turning to services offered that also …show more content…
Audrey planned on getting her grandson, Wayne, a car as a graduation present, so she went to her bank of 40 years to apply for a loan. With such a long history, she never expected for there to be any type of problem with credibility. As the loan manager was looking up her file, she noticed some unusual behavior occurring in her credit history. There was an outstanding debt of 28,000 dollars. Looking further into the details, they discovered an outside person had applied for, obtained, and had been using a Freedom Credit Card under Audrey’s name. Having obtained the credit card, they continued to make purchases and ignore payments. She was appalled with this discovery as she had never had a credit card in her life. Deciding to go to the police station, Audrey worried that the police may not believe her story and arrest her instead, as is normal for any case of identity theft. Though, the kind and understanding detective alleviated her worries, merely obtaining some of her information to further the investigation. About two weeks later, the detective gave her the information of when the credit card was applied for and the post office box address that was used to redirect the mail to. They found that the address was in the city in a numbered company. Audrey and the detective were able to obtain a search warrant for the post office box and discovered the name of the owner. He was brought into questioning and did not confess until he saw all of the information they had against him. He had done some work for her building a fence the summer before and found a preauthorized application for a Freedom Credit Card and taken it for a spending spree. Audrey remembered getting the preauthorized application but mistook it for junk mail and threw it away. Officers said that was her first mistake; she should have shredded it for the personal information it had on it. Audrey