High-tech crime encompasses a broad range of crimes that attack computers using various digital tools, thus presenting a high danger to network users worldwide. Such crimes generally comprise both minor and major cases, depending on the goals that criminals pursue. In such a manner, online identity theft represents a growing threat, as offenses tend to appear at “an alarming rate” (Knetzger & Muraski, 2008, p. 54). Indeed, generally understood as unauthorized use of one’s personal information, identity theft appears daily in various spheres of human life. Further, the cases of various identity theft cases will be elaborated, simultaneously providing methods for to lower potential risks.
The Case of Unauthorized Possession of Credit Card Accounts Information
Financial institutions, such as banks, protect their clients’ information with the use of diverse methods in order to prevent frauds that use information and telecommunication technologies. Nevertheless, even official authentication methods do not appear to be a full guarantee that personal information will never be leaked. Indeed, a notable case of an individual who possessed the personal information of more than 2,300 accounts of credit cards shall be thereby considered. To be more precise, in 2011, a man from Brooklyn, N. Y., was accused of online identity theft, which involved more than $700,000 (The U.S. Department of Justice, 2011). This and other similar schemes primarily involve purchasing the stolen credit cards and, upon obtaining personal information, further distributing the data among other individuals. Subsequently, these individuals then use the stolen information to commit other fraudulent transactions. In turn, people suffer huge monetary losses, especially if they do not inform their bank about unauthorized transactions on time.
Methods to Prevent the Potential Leak of the Credit Card Accounts Information
It is fundamentally difficult to protect oneself from online identity theft. Indeed, referring to Bani-Hani et al. (2019, p. 1055), various authentication methods are still at high risk, which means that individuals cannot be fully protected from the potential high-tech crime, especially in the case of single-factor authentication method. In turn, this brings to the idea of the crucial necessity to establish two-factor authentication, as it is expected to be less vulnerable to particular attacks in comparison to any other existing methods. Aside from the general necessity of secure authentication that the financial institutions and other entities shall provide in order to prevent their clients from fraud, it is vitally important for individuals themselves to be prepared for the potential cybercrimes when possible. In this manner, people can double-check the payment systems they use or resort to for further clarifications when they suspect a potential threat. To be more precise, for instance, these individuals can contact their bank through the official telephone contact with a corresponding question. In addition, people should not disclose their card details to third parties and never share the received codes with anyone when logging into the bank account or while making online transactions.
The Case of Medical Records Identity Theft
Still, people can become victims of identity theft in a wide variety of ways. For instance, individuals can face a threat that implies the potential theft of their medical records identity. In this way, in 2021, a marketer from Louisiana was accused of healthcare fraud, which was in turn connected to the specific methods to defraud TRICARE (an official federal military healthcare program in the U.S.) and other programs which generally provide healthcare coverage for particular citizens. Basically, his scheme focused on obtaining individuals’ personal information, which was primarily related to the accused’s military acquaintances. Further, this information was used while filing fraudulent claims to various national public healthcare programs for disposable medical supplies. (The U.S. Department of Justice, 2021) Victims who were involved in this scheme did not directly endure the deception, yet the medical supplies ordered by the criminal were obtained with the use of their personal information. Additionally, the accused marketer recruited doctors to get prescriptions for expensive medicines in his scheme, which therefore shows the problem of bribing as well.
Methods to Prevent the Potential Threat of the Medical Records Theft
One way or another, medical records theft represents a broad range of possible crimes that can also involve the theft of people’s identity documents, such as their social security cards. Furthermore, people can receive significant bills for various medical supplies, which they neither ordered themselves nor received. Indeed, it is particularly difficult to protect oneself from this type of a criminal fraud, as various operations cannot be easy to observe. Indeed, in some cases, people may come to the hospital and be asked about certain health conditions, which one is not associated with (Knetzger & Muraski, 2008, p. 70). Furthermore, it may be difficult to regulate the medical records which were altered by the criminals due to the specific privacy rights and other regulations. Still, people can protect themselves by the mean of monitoring the status of their medical documents and not disclosing the data to third parties at any time. Additionally, the growing threat of the medical records theft should be still taken into due attention, as this problem is no less dangerous than any other type of theft. Therefore, it still should be recognized on the authority level, as the problems concerning the identity theft cases in the medical industry cannot be easily resolved by the individuals themselves.
References
Bani-Hani, A., Majdalweieh, M., & AlShamsi, A. (2019). Online authentication methods used in banks and attacks against these methods. Procedia Computer Science, 151, 1052-1059.
Brooklyn man pleads guilty to online identity theft involving more than $700,000 in reported fraud (n.d.). Department of Justice. Office of Public Affairs. Web.
Knetzger, M. R., & Muraski, J. A. (2008). Investigating high-tech crime. Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Louisiana Marketer Sentenced in More Than $180 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme. (n.d.) Department of Justice. Office of Public Affairs. Web.