The theft offense can be committed in a variety of ways. In essence, it occurs when someone impersonates another person using bits and pieces of information about them, most commonly their Social Security number, for fraudulent purposes. Obtaining credit cards and loans in the name of another person and then failing to pay the bills, opening utility accounts, renting an apartment, acquiring a cell phone, purchasing a car or a property, and so on are examples. Another sort of identity theft, which I refer to as the “worst case scenario,” occurs when the offender conducts crimes in the victim’s name and creates a criminal record for that individual (Garber, 2017). Because of federal law, victims are not accountable for the costs racked up by the imposters. They do, however, have the anxiety and anguish of rebuilding their financial health and restoring their positive credit history over months, if not years.
The length of time it takes to recover from identity theft varies greatly based on the sort of fraud committed. When it comes to credit card fraud, where someone uses the card without the owner’s permission but does not gain access to more sensitive information, it could just be the time it takes the victim to report the fraud and receive a replacement card in the mail. Nevertheless, with more serious instances of identity theft, it can take a long time (Garber, 2017). If someone takes your Social Security number and uses it to open a credit account in your name, it can take months to challenge the account and prove you were not the one who used it (Garber, 2017). Unfortunately, It might take years to erase the damage if someone manages to use someone’s identity to acquire tax debt and do other crimes and severe infractions.
References
Garber, M. (2017). Identity Theft. In The Muses on Their Lunch Hour (pp. 79-88). New York: Fordham University Press.