Dilemmas of Online Identity Theft

Abstract

Identity theft is a rapidly growing problem in the electronic environment. It has been recognized as the most widespread and fastest growing crime in the United States (Ahern, 2003). It is of great concern to online users, online service providers, governments, and law enforcement agencies. Identity theft could happen as a result of highly specialized electronic attacks (Sweeney, 2005), bugs in the system of the service providers, physical theft, misplaced paperwork, or just because of human negligence. Victims of identity theft sometimes spend considerable time and money to fix the problem; however their personal loans, mortgage, credit cards, and car loans can still be refused (FTC, 2002). This is shattering the confidence of users, thus creating a distrustful environment while making it very hard for small and medium-sized online service providers to compete with both established online and physically present service providers.