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International News
National News
A case of mistaken identity
Millions fooled by 'scareware'
Local News
Scam Spells Trouble
Rookie cop busts suspect in New Year's Day slayings
Canadian stranded in Kenya
Scam targeted Facebook friends of N.L. woman
Editorials
Identity Theft
Mistaken Identity
Identity Theft & Businesses Identity theft is the fastest growing crime industry in the world, over 200 thousand people a year have their personal information stolen in Canada alone! That is 4.2 million too many, and the thing is identity theft is totally preventable. Businesses and organizations do not take identity theft seriously and this is a serious matter! There are five main types of identity theft, the first being character, this is where a criminal copies everything from your personality to your looks, then commits a crime, this makes it look like you are the criminal. Social insurance number identity theft is when someone obtains your SIN and uses it to obtain a job under your name. Medical identity theft occurs when someone obtains your health card and uses it to purchase narcotics and other healthcare. Driver’s license identity theft is when someone steals your driver’s license and uses it to commit traffic related offenses. Last but definitely not least is credit card theft, this is when someone takes your credit card and uses it to purchase items for themselves. In my opinion this is the worst kind, you can end up getting charged thousands of dollars due to the carelessness of some businesses. It is the law for businesses to keep their customer’s information all in one database for a minimum of seven years, often not with a lot of protection either. In 2005 in Great Britain a great theft was planned, more then 300 businesses were targeted most of which were successfully robbed. All types of identity theft occurred excluding driver’s licenses, meaning many people lost their identities because of this one crime event. It’s just more proof that businesses need to be way more careful, nowadays, we are in no position to be waving around our personal information for everyone to see. Small business owners are very busy and don’t always worry about identity theft, which is one of the worst things that they could do states Linda Foley co-founder of Identity Theft Resource Center, "The worst thing a small business can do is think of themselves as a small business, you have to be a small business with a Big Business mentality." Identity theft is happening throughout the world and if we don’t stop it who will! We need to be more cautious with the businesses we patronize, and demand the best protection money can buy!
Mistaken Identity & Border Control When someone brings up the topic of identity crime, the first thing that you may think of is identity theft – where someone will take your identity (could be through credit cards, cheques, drivers licenses, etc). Another kind of identity crime is mistaken identity. This is where you are assumed to be a criminal because of what you look like, even though you aren't. This might be because of how you look, and false eyewitness. Researchers say that the eyewitness of the orignal crime may have a clear image of the criminal, but after looking at row after row of suspects who look similar, the witness’s memory may alter slightly, making him pick the wrong person. How can we change this? We don’t want an innocent person going to jail, and the criminal running free. One way to change this is to perform DNA testing, but it is not always accessible in every situation. We also use fingerprinting, but like DNA testing, it is not always available. If you are innocent, but imprisoned, then released because of evidence proving your innocence, you will get money for the time you spent in jail. In other words they're paying you for the part of your life they ripped away. A famous case of mistaken identity took place in the United Kingdom. Adolph Beck served several years in prison for fraud. After he had served his time and was released, he was captured again on the same charges. Shortly after he was re-captured the real criminal with very similar physical features was caught. Adolph was payed for the time spent in prison, in other words the time they took away from his life. Another thing that will lead to a case of mistaken identity is a false eyewitness. Although the witness may not be bias, they could possibly have not seen the criminal well enough to describe him to the artist or identify a picture. For instance, the witness might have see the criminal in lower light, or remembered the wrong person, or the witness could even have bad eyesight. Mistaken identity is a growing problem and needs to be dealt with immediately; before someone is imprisoned we need to be sure that it is really the criminal we are looking for. If the government put some money into this problem for faster and more commonly available DNA identification we would not have this problem and the world would be a better place to live.
Facts & Statistics
