Preventive Measures Against Identity Crime and Consumer Scams

Running head: CYBERCRIME
Cybercrime
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CYBERCRIME
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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CYBERCRIME
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