Complete 5 pages APA formatted article: Effects of Identity Theft. “The 1998 U.S. Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act (ITADA) has defined identity theft as the knowing transfer, possession,

Complete 5 pages APA formatted article: Effects of Identity Theft. “The 1998 U.S. Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act (ITADA) has defined identity theft as the knowing transfer, possession, or usage of any name or number that identifies another person, with the intent of committing or aiding or abetting a crime” (Roberts & Shreft, 2009, pp.22-30)

This theft has its effects varying from individual losses to insecurity pertaining to nationally relevant matters. The objective of the essay is to critically analyze the effect of these identity thefts generally to the economy and specifically to the industries and individuals dependent on identity based virtual facilities.

CSU (2009, pp 7-8) has reported that the trend of identity theft had been on increase in 2008. The report had cited in the last six months of the year 2008, there had been an increase of 25 percent in the issues pertaining to identity theft. These identity thefts included illegal transaction of personal information through online chat rooms which becomes active market for trade of security information pertaining to internet banking passwords, credit card numbers and social security numbers CSU (2009, pp 7-8). This trend has been reiterated by the FTC as well which has confirmed that they had received almost 1200000 complaints pertaining to identity thefts. This statistics indicated an increase of 50 percent over the count in the previous year. As per this report the most common among the identity thefts were the credit card frauds. As per the reported crimes cited by Federal Trade Commission, the financial losses included in the theft counted up to 1.8 million dollars. In the American context, the trend in identity theft has been found on an increase in the states of Arizona, California and Florida.