The planning and evaluation process of the identity theft case against the university professor will require several action steps. The actions that will be taken to recover the identity of the university professor will depend on the nature of the identity theft and the fraud committed.
The first step will be to request the professor to confirm the presence of any anomalies in his monthly statements. If he observes any anomalies on his credit cards statements, or financial reports, he will be advised to inform his credit agencies immediately (Dadisho, 2005).
The second action plan will depend on the errors detected in the professor’s monthly credit cards statements. Once the professor reports any anomaly, and the fraud team concludes there are grounds to believe a fraud has taken place, the fraud team will recommend to the professor that he files a preliminary fraud alert with his credit cards companies, or other agencies that deal with identity theft. He will also be asked to confirm his accounts details with these companies (Dadisho, 2005).
Once a fraud is confirmed, the professor will be advised to file a protest form with the trade agency and an identity theft statement with the local law enforcement unit. Following this step, the professor will be instructed to make several copies of the police report and preserve the originals in a secure place. These documents will facilitate the investigation process (FBI, 2012).
Depending on the nature of the identity theft, the professor will be advised to contemplate a second fraud notification. This type of alert lasts seven years. It obliges creditors to contact the professor in-person prior to opening new accounts. This final step helps creditors authenticate the identity of the person opening an account with them. This minimizes the chances of an identity theft (FBI, 2012).
How to Stop or Minimize Identity Theft
It is possible to stop or minimize identity theft. This argument is confirmed by the B. J. Thomas case. Miss Thomas lost 65,000 dollars in identity theft. A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent K. Barrows managed to solve this case, which was one of Americas’ long running fraud cases (O’brien, 2004).
With the advent and increase in identity theft cases in modern years, major credit agencies across the world such as Equifax and Experian, began recommending credit supervision and personality fraud facilities to their customers for a fee (Roberson, 2008).
Recommendations
I would recommend several measures to prevent and minimize odds of fraud as a result of identity theft. First, I would recommend close monitoring of credit cards. Given that credit card statements contain transactions history, watchful credit card users can observe anomalies in their transactions. In view of this, credit users may need to subscribe to identity theft monitoring services, as an additional safety measure.
Second, people should be advised to preserve their financial transactions data and review their monthly statements regularly to identify errors and anomalies in the statements. Third, people have to invest and install defense softwares in their computers. In addition, they should keep these computer applications updated, to protect against online hackers and other pilfering computer applications (Mitic, 2009).
I would also recommend to people to avoid sharing documents with private information, they be cautious of strange email with attachments and active links, they keep personal documents with sensitive data such as credit card numbers and bank account numbers protected and they stay informed about modern day frauds (Mitic, 2009).
References
Dadisho, E. (2005). Identity Theft and the Police Response: The Problem. Web.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2012). A stolen identity is a powerful cloak of anonymity for criminals, terrorists, and a danger to national security and private citizens alike. Web.
Mitic, S. (2009). Stopping Identity Theft: 10 Easy Steps to Security. Berkeley, California: Nolo.
O’brien, T. L. (2004). Identity Theft Is Epidemic. Can It Be Stopped? The New York Times, p. 1.
Roberson, C. (2008). Identity Theft Investigations. New York: Kaplan Publishing.