Preventive Measures Against Identity Crime and Consumer Scams

This essay discusses the concept of cybercrime and analyzes ID crimes and consumer scams in detail. It identifies the different processes by which an individual and government can possibly prevent the occurrence of such crimes. The essay proposes certain preventive measures that a government, an organization, and an individual can make use of in order to prevent these types of cybercrime from occurrence in the future.

Running head: CYBERCRIME
Cybercrime
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Introduction
Cyber crimes are those crimes that involve the use of a computer system or similar devices to
plan and execute an attack. These attacks make use of internet as a medium of execution of
crimes. Identity theft is a type of cybercrime where an attacker gain an access to certain
confidential information of a user such as the personal identification number, driver license
number, social security number and so on (Herley 2014). The attacker make and illegal use of
the obtained information to impersonate someone else. This type of fraud is termed as identity
fraud. Wide evidences suggest that in the last few years, the cases of cybercrimes have increased
exponentially (Hyman 2013). The aim of this essay is to discuss the different preventive
measures that governments, businesses and individuals can do to prevent or avoid the occurrence
of an identity crime or consumer scams. Identity frauds and consumer scams are mainly
exhibited with an aim of gaining a financial advantage in some other person’s name. With the
increase in use of social media, it has become considerably easier for an attacker to plan and
execute a passive attack on an individual to gain his/her personal information (Taylor, Fritsch
and Liederbach 2014). The process of preventing the identity fraud and consumer scams is
discussed in the following paragraphs.
Cyber Crime and its Effects
The crime that makes use of computers as an object is termed as cyber crime. Hacking,
spamming, Phishing are some common cybercrimes that is capable of creating a havoc. Identity
threat is a type of cybercrime as well (Kumar and Kumar 2014). Cybercriminals can make use of
computer and internet in getting an access to or stealing the personal information of an individual
such as business trade secrets and other personal information. The cybercriminals can

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furthermore make use of computer to execute a malicious attack leading to data breach and leak
of confidential information. Evidences suggest that there have been a drastic increase in cyber
crimes in recent time (Taylor, Fritsch and Liederbach 2014). This makes it even more essential
to take preventive measures against cybercrimes. The most common cybercrimes across the
world include theft of bank information online, identity theft, unauthorized use and access to
someone else’s personal devices and so on (Anderson et al. 2013). A typical cybercrime
incorporates a number of planned activities, the most basic ones being the denial of service
attacks, virus and malware attacks and gaining an unauthorized access to a network. The essay
aims in discussing the ID crime and consumer scams which are elaborated in the following
section.
ID crime and Consumer Scams
Identity crime or ID threat is a cybercrime where an imposter gains an access to the key
confidential information about an individual and uses it to gain an illegal access of that person’s
assets. Identity crimes are executed with an aim of financial gain by impersonating someone else.
The worse-case scenario of identity theft includes an imposter impersonating someone else in
while executing a crime thus creating a false criminal record (Manky 2013). The stolen personal
information of a person when used to commit a fraud is termed as identity fraud. It is a part of
cybercrime mainly because over the past few years, internet has been a constant source for the
criminals to gain an access to the personal information of different individuals.
Consumer scam is a fraud that includes deceptive sale of different goods and services to a
consumer with an aim of extracting money. Evidences prove that majority of the consumer
scams nowadays originate through internet (Yar 2013). There are different types of consumer

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frauds, which include credit card frauds, mortgage fraud, fake charities, and fake lotteries. It has
been observed that the identity threat and the consumer frauds are the types of cybercrimes that
proves to be very hard to control. The only reason behind this is the use of sophisticated hacking
tools and advanced technology by the criminals in execution of the attacks. Majority of the
consumer scams encompasses the email scams that lure the customers in buying a wrong product
(Finch 2013). Therefore, it becomes important to identify the process by which businesses and
individuals can prevent an ID scam and consumer scams. There are a number of theories that
attempt to explain the reason behind why criminals indulge in cybercrimes (Roberts, Indermaur
and Spiranovic 2013). These theories include social learning theory, low self control theory,
frustration aggression hypothesis, general strain theory, situation crime prevention theories and
routine activity theory.
Social learning theory is one of the basic theories of crime and can be used to describe an
wide array of criminal behaviours (Doig 2013). This theory indicates that individuals develop the
motivation and the skills to commit crime with association of the people who have involved with
such crimes. The cyber crimes involving software piracy can be best described with the social
learning theory of crime (Cross, Richards and Smith 2016). Software piracy definitely includes
certain degree of skills and knowledge which needs to be learnt mostly.
Low self control theory on the other hand points to the fact that low self control is a
primary factor that drives and individual towards criminality. This theory can therefore explain
all types of crime including cybercrimes. There can be a number of reasons behind low self
control and criminals with low self control tend to be impulsive. Strain theory is quite similar to
the low self control theory and it explains how an individual deal with a negative strain. Negative
strain theory explains cyber bullying which is another most common cyber crime. One of the

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cyber crime theories that can possibly explain the reason behind consumer scams and ID fraud is
the routine activity theory. This theory was originally developed by Cohen and Felson. This
theory states that most of the victims of cyber crimes are predictable to the criminals. These
types of cyber criminals are mostly motivated offenders who if given a motive will do the
offence. In case of identity fraud and consumer scams, the motivation factor is definitely the
money. With the increase in use of technology and internet over the years, criminals have found
growing opportunities of stealing the personal information of an individual to execute a fraud.
Therefore it becomes important for government, and organization or an individual to identify the
preventive measures of such crimes. The identification and evaluation of the different preventive
measures against ID frauds and consumer scams are elaborated in the following sections.
Preventive Measures
Identity theft, deception, consumer scams or any types of cybercrimes results in loss of
personal data, banking information, social security number and so on. Evidences support that
over 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year as a result of cybercrimes.
Identity theft mainly occurs when a user fall in prey for an attacker. Responding to phishing
emails, downloading malicious applications by mistake are some of the process that results in
stealing of the identity of an individual (Taylor, Fritsch and Liederbach 2014). This includes the
use of an unsecure network while performing an online transaction or using an ATM that is
possibly rigged with a skimming device. Therefore it is important for an individual to understand
the different processes by which one can protect his or her identity online.
At first, it is necessary for an individual to make use of strong and up to date security
software in every digital device that make use of internet. Furthermore, it is necessary for the

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individuals to learn how to spot spam, scams and phishing emails (Kitching 2017). This will
prevent an individual in indulging in any sort of consumer scams. One of the possible reasons
behind identity scam is the use of weak passwords. It is therefore always wise to make use of
strong passwords, preferably alpha numeric so that an attacker fails to break it. Furthermore, an
individual should be responsible enough to monitor and review the credit and debit card
activities to quickly identify any unauthorized use. Any individual indulging in online
transaction should make use of only https websites for ensuring secure access.
These are some basic preventive measures that an individual should consider to prevent
any sorts of ID frauds, consumer scams or similar other cyber crimes. However, it is the
responsibility of the government or business organizations to secure their information assets to
prevent any sort of data breach as such data breaches can unveil the personal information of
many individuals.
Data breaches or identity crimes occurs when a hacker could gain an access the database
of the information that is stored by government or organizations. This can contain the details of
the customers of the organization including their name, phone number and email address. This
information can instigate consumer scam as well by phishing. Therefore, it is necessary for the
government of any business organization to take preventive actions against that. For that the
government should enforce and maintain high security standard for preventing any sorts of
possible data breaches. There is no denying the fact that government or organizational database
is quite complex and therefore it becomes difficult to handle (Bossler and Holt 2015). In order to
prevent any sorts of information misuse, it is recommended that the government or individual
impose end users training. The network of the organization should be secured and guarded by
firewall so that no intruder can gain any unauthorized access (Wall 2015). In this way, the

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government or different business organizations can possibly prevent the occurrence of ID crime
and linked consumer scams.
Conclusion
The essay discusses the concept of cyber crime and analyses ID crimes and consumer
scams in details. The aim of the essay was to identify the different process by which an
individual and government can possibly prevent the occurrence of such crimes. According to the
evidences and researches performed, there has been an exponential increase in the number of
cyber crimes across the world possibly because of the increasing use of internet. Internet is a
medium that gives the criminals an easy access to the personal life of individuals thereby leading
to access of the personal information of those individuals. The essay discusses the different
theories of cybercrimes and identified that routine activity theory can possibly explain the motive
behind the attackers in planning and executing ID frauds and consumers scams. The essay
further proposes certain preventive measures that a government, an organization and an
individual can make use of in order to prevent these types of cybercrime from occurrence in
future.

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References
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