RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Preventing Online Identity Theft and Phasing



Preventing Online Identity Theft and Phasing

Background

Identity theft is the theft or unauthorized use of personal or credit information—is a relatively new form of crime that can result in its victims having to spend thousands of dollars and years of their lives restoring their good names. Little research has been conducted on this crime, so it is not well understood. This entry discusses the multiple definitions of identity theft, its prevalence and consequences, and legislative responses to it. It also presents findings from the first ongoing data collection of identity theft in the United States, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Findings from 2005, the first full calendar year of data collection using the survey revealed that 5.5% of all U.S. households had experienced this crime (Baum, 2007, 21-24).

In 2005, 6.4 million U.S. households discovered that at least one member of the household had been the victim of identity theft during the preceding 6 months. This figure represents 1 in 20 households in the United States. Victimization rates vary depending on the type of an identity theft. Thus almost half (46.2%) of victimized households experienced unauthorized use of an existing credit card, whereas a quarter (24.7%) experienced unauthorized use of other existing accounts. Misuse of personal information, or the form that some argue is “true” identity theft, was experienced by about 1.1 million households, representing one in six victimized households. Not all households in the United States are equally likely to experience identity theft. More than two thirds of victimized households reported a financial loss of $1 or more as a result of the identity theft (Newman & McNally, 87-90). The increasing number of online identity theft is increasing the concern in the society and more research is done to find ways to prevent the crime.

Research Question

The guiding research questions of this research study are defined below.

What are some different types of online identity theft and how they are executed?

How technology can be enhanced to prevent the online identity theft and phasing in current era of information technology?

Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives act like a guide for the researcher through which the researcher can deduce research questions. The aims and objectives of this research study are as follows.

To study different types of online identity theft.

To identify the impact and consequences of online identity theft on businesses and households.

To investigate the ways to ...