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To examine identity theft in the United States and to provide an overview and assessment of recent legislation designed to assist identity theft victims and punish offenders.

Statistics on the prevalence of identity theft are included, as well as details from a fact‐based, fairly typical case of identify theft. An overview of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) and the Identity Theft Penalty Act (ITPEA) are provided, and the provisions of each act are analyzed.

It will take time to determine to what extent the provisions in FACTA and ITPEA will prevent or reduce identity theft. No doubt, in the future, there will amendments to both acts.

Future empirical studies could inform all interested parties by examining the impact of the FACTA and ITPEA over a multi‐year time frame. Moreover, cross‐cultural comparisons focusing on the ways in which other nations address identity theft will also shed light on the issues discussed herein.

The topic of identity theft remains salient to researchers as well as criminal justice practitioners and victim advocates. Public education to increase knowledge of identity theft, and to provide information and resources for victims, will be critical in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to make readers aware of the extensiveness of healthcare fraud in the USA and how it involves and affects the government, healthcare providers, insurance companies, patients and the public. In addition, recommendations are made that may help control this pervasive type of fraud.

A range of different journal publications, information from government health institutions and law enforcement websites, healthcare fraud cases and healthcare laws are used as a basis to provide information about how fraudsters are committing healthcare fraud and how to prevent this fraud from occurring.

Despite increased funding and prosecution efforts by the government, healthcare fraud continues to be a major threat to the US economy and public. While healthcare fraud will never be eradicated, specific efforts can be deployed to help rein in these complex fraud schemes.

The paper provides a useful resource of information on healthcare fraud for healthcare providers, insurance companies, patients and the public that may help combat healthcare fraud and prevent financial losses.

Every dollar saved from combating fraud could be used to improve access to more or better health services and can, thereby, save lives.

This paper provides recommendations regarding healthcare fraud that could help prevent this large drain on the US economy.

Familiar identity theft, which occurs when an individual known to a victim steals his/her identity, is a common problem in the USA. The purpose of this study was to understand familiar identity theft victims’ reporting behaviors using Black's (1976) theory of law as a conceptual framework.

Data were obtained from the 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 administrations of the National Crime Victimization Survey – Identity Theft Supplement. A series of cross-tabulations were conducted to examine the relationship between reporting behaviors and age, minority, gender, income, marital status and education. Fisher’s exact test was used to interpret the findings.

Key findings include older familiar identity theft victims who personally lost greater sums of money because of identity theft victimization were more likely to report to law enforcement than younger familiar identity theft victims who personally lost less money. Married familiar identity theft victims were less likely to report to law enforcement than those who were not married.

This study extends the work of Golladay (2017) to explore the reporting behaviors of a population of identity theft victims that have been largely overlooked in empirical literature.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the trends of various types of data breaches and their compromised records in the USA using a new model recently developed by the authors.

The 2,280 data breaches and over 512 million related compromised records tracked by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse from 2005 through 2010 were analyzed and classified into four external, five internal and one non-traceable data breach categories, after which trends were determined for each.

The findings indicate that although the trends for the annual number of data breaches and each of the internal and external categories and their related compromised records have increased over the six-year period, the changes have not been consistent from year to year.

By classifying data breaches into internal and external categories with the use of this new data breach model provides an excellent methodological framework for organizations to use to develop more workable strategies for safeguarding personal information of consumers, clients, employees and other entities.

The topic of data breaches remains salient to profit and nonprofit organizations, researchers, legislators, as well as criminal justice practitioners and consumer advocate groups.

Though many studies and reports have been published about the scale of identity fraud (IDF), no work has been done on developing models to measure IDF. The purpose of this paper is to propose a measurement model for IDF and test the validity of that measurement model.

After providing a background on the concepts of IDF, the paper discusses the related term, identity theft. Next, a measurement model is developed, based on the current practice of measurement of IDF in four countries. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used in identifying the indicators and factors of IDF. After the EFA is conducted, confirmatory factor analysis is employed to test the validity of the measurement model. These tests are conducted using the data collected from Canadian financial institutions.

The review of the current empirical studies suggests that IDF should be assessed using a measurement model with 33 indicators to measure five factors of IDF. However, the analysis of Canadian financial institutions suggests that a measurement model that includes 27 indicators and four factors is most appropriate for the data.

The measurement model developed in the present paper is based on an examination of a sample of financial institutions in Canada. Hence, the results of this paper cannot be generalized to organizations in other sectors of the economy. Further studies in other sectors of the economy are required to identify industry‐specific measurement model.

This paper is the first approach toward developing a model for measuring IDF.

This paper is the first study that attempts to scientifically identify and validate a measurement system in the area of IDF.

This research examines the relationship between the timeliness in announcing the discovery of a data breach and consumer trust in an e-commerce company, as well as later trust-rebuilding efforts taken by the company to compensate users impacted by the breach.

A survey experiment was used to examine the effect of both trust-reducing events (announced data breaches) and trust-enhancing events (provision of identity theft protection and credit monitoring) on consumer trust. The timeliness of the breach announcement by an e-commerce company was manipulated between two randomly assigned groups of subjects; one group viewed an announcement of the breach immediately upon its discovery, and the other viewed an announcement made two months after the breach was discovered. Consumer trust was measured before the breach, after the breach was announced, and finally, after the announcement of data protection.

The results suggest that companies that delay a data breach announcement are likely to suffer a larger drop in consumer trust than those that immediately disclose the data breach. The results also suggest that trust can be repaired by providing data protection. However, even after providing identity theft protection and credit monitoring, companies that fail to promptly disclose a breach have lower repaired trust than companies that promptly disclose.

This study contributes to the literature on e-commerce trust by examining how a company's forthrightness in reporting a data breach impacts user trust at the time of the disclosure of the data breach and after subsequent efforts to repair trust.

This paper aims to study the concept of identity fraud and how these identity thefts can actually lead to financial crime. These crimes which usually were done in the traditional way now have taken leaps with the increase in the use of cyber world.

Several research papers, articles and newsfeeds were referred to study the concept, growth, scope, effect and impact of identity theft. It was also found that identity theft is the most common type of cybercrimes.

Identity theft though a simple crime but if not taken care of can lead to multiple crimes which can affect not only individuals but also companies. And when these crimes impact companies, they can actually hamper the economy as a whole.

Information for the same is not available very easily, so the study is solely based on secondary data.

Identity theft effects an individual not only financially but also mentally and socially; thus, these effect each and every one in the said economy.

This paper is an original work of the authors, and it is for the use of students, educators and academicians.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss credit card fraud in Trinidad and Tobago.

The paper describes credit card typologies in Trinidad and Tobago and the existing law governing such fraud. It outlines the success and inadequacies of the enforcement machinery and issues involving credit card fraud detection and prevention.

The law regarding credit cards is in a very confused and unsatisfactory state in Trinidad and Tobago. Education in counteracting the criminal activities of credit card fraudsters is vital. Informing the public of the various fraudulent typologies relative to credit cards and at the same time, advising members how to protect themselves are the most effective methods to address the fraud problem. The Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago should also play a critical role in addressing credit card fraud. The association should formulate credit card policies along similar principles as those formulated for cheque fraud to benefit all banks and merchants.

Credit card fraud has only been a recent phenomenon in Trinidad and Tobago. This paper is valuable in offering suggestions as to the way forward in the prevention of such fraud.

This study aims to explain what factors influence the relationship between the university students’ knowledge of the risk of identity theft and the preventive measures they take.

A series of semi-structured interviews was used as the primary data collection tool. The sample for this study comprised 12 undergraduate students (six males and six females) from the Flinders Business School. The interviews were designed as face-to-face interviews.

The current findings indicate that, despite the fact that students were reasonably knowledgeable regarding the general risk of identity theft, many of the students had only limited knowledge about specific issues related to identity theft. It was found that the limited knowledge or misunderstanding of specific issues prevented students from using appropriate measures that could reduce the risk of identity theft. The students demonstrated a significant misunderstanding of who perpetrators typically were targeting when stealing personal information or what perpetrators of identity theft were looking for.

The results of the study contribute to a better understanding of the students’ knowledge about the risks associated with identity crime. They may also assist governments and other stakeholders with vested interests, such as financial institutions and educational providers, to educate individuals about the circumstances where they are potentially vulnerable to identity theft.

Various research investigations have found that students' awareness of information security issues continues to be poor and this is indeed a concern especially when students use information technologies pervasively to communicate, to socialize as well as to work on academic assignments. As it is important to understand students' behaviors towards information security and safety in the digital cyberspace, the purpose of this paper is to investigate their awareness and perception, in particular, of Bluetooth security threats and risks, and whether they are able to take preventive measures to protect themselves from such security vulnerabilities. Bluetooth technology is used in this study as it is a widely used form of wireless networks that facilitates computing resources to be connected anytime anywhere; however, it has security weaknesses like any other digital networks.

A field survey was conducted to collect the empirical data from students at a local university. The survey instrument/questionnaire was developed based on various literatures on Bluetooth applications, Bluetooth security vulnerabilities, and users' usage and perception on computer security and safety.

The results show that most students do not take precautions to mitigate against security vulnerabilities; however, there is a difference on students' perceptions based on their academic major or domain knowledge, for instance, engineering students have demonstrated significant awareness of security risks compared to students from the business and social science colleges. It is therefore not surprising to note that engineering students are more cautious users of Bluetooth, hence are more secure users of technologies.

The findings provide useful information for academic institutions to understand students' behavior towards security risks especially in terms of identity theft, unsecured systems and inadequate security practices. Indeed, the findings of this study highlight or emphasize the importance of promoting security awareness to student cohorts especially on the use of mobile computing applications such as Bluetooth or wireless. Perhaps, universities should design curriculum to incorporate the study of information and cyber security so as to inculcate a culture of cyber safety as well as to prepare these prospective employees as more secured users when they enter the workplace. Indeed, considering the increasing number of users who tend to be naïve on security vulnerabilities, this research adds a critical message also to manufacturers and software developers to design more robust security features so as to minimize security breaches.

This paper provides further evidence to the body of research investigations on information and computing security threats and students' perceptions and behavior towards security risks and vulnerabilities. More important, this paper confirms that most students are not secure users, and it seems they not very capable of protecting themselves from security threats.