Identity theft is one of the latest buzzword within our society in recent times. Identity theft refers to hiding one’s original identity and illegally misusing someone else’s identity. The person pretending to be someone else tries to make money at the cost of others and makes an abusive use of fake identity. The occurrence of this form of crime has increased partly due to the expansion in our communication network where people interact or know about only the existence of other person but have not met them person. Since one does not recognize the other person by physical appearance it is easier for identity thieves to step into others shoe and gather vital information for their own selfish motives. Identity theft can also occur from distance when someone may call or communicate with any other person just to gather some confidential information and then misuse the data provided.

Emergence of Internet apart from providing many facilities and being a blessing for people has also added a lot to this already existing crime.

With more and more business houses using Internet and computerized networks for their official workings increased amount of significant data are now found on web. Apart from the obtaining vital statistics of any corporate house or any important individual information, identity thieves do disguise to fool others and obtain some critical information like the credit card number or the social security number. Theft of credit card number and social security number can result in a great loss and trauma for the victim. As the culprit could use the credit card for withdrawing money from others account and also the crimes committed by the thief can be attributed to the victim since the thief was using a fake identity of other person.

This increasing form of crime has raised concern of many and people are now finding ways to combat such malicious actions that cause loss to innocent citizens. Apart from following the general instructions and relying on social systems to prevent such crimes certain individual effort is also required to protect one from identity thieves. One must be cautious not to provide any confidential information on Internet or any other public communication systems that can be accessed by anyone. Only after perfectly confirmed verification some information may be shared if it’s very urgent. Also one should not rely on anyone else without careful verification of the identity of the other person.

It’s a matter of great regret that such identity thieves many a times bank upon the sentiments of good citizens and fool them to make some easy money. Many such cases of false identity have been reported in recent past where people pretend to be someone in great need of help and when some virtuous person comes forward to help them they just breach others and make personal profits at the expense of others.

Recently when the world was struck by an unfortunate natural disaster of tsunami help from entire world poured in through all means. Government organizations of countries struck by this calamity had set websites to make people aware of the damages incurred and collect help from them if they could contribute to the well-being of victims. Following the genuine websites many fraudulent websites were also hosted at the same time to bank upon people’s sentiments for personal interests. Such incidents and many others make it a moral responsibility of every citizen to come forward and assist in curbing this social crime.