An identity theft essay is one of the many essays prompts that some schools require of their students to write. If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you have to write an essay on identity theft and you don’t know where to begin. Do not worry! This article will provide you with a writing guide and also a free sample to help you understand better.
What Is Identity Theft?
Identity theft is simply explained as when someone uses the personal information of another person to commit a crime. Usually, the person whose personal information was stolen is unaware that their identity was used.
How To Write An Identity Theft Essay
Now that you know what identity theft is, the next thing is to think about what angle you want to present your essay. It is important to note that your essay topic must be original, that is never been submitted before. There are some key points to note when writing your essay:
- First, your idea doesn’t have to be perfect at the beginning. With your note and pen, scribble down your topic idea in its pure jumbled form. Don’t worry, as you write, your ideas will become comprehensive.
- Secondly, don’t worry too much about getting the perfect essay topic. As long as you have the right ideas, continue to develop them. As you write, you will get inspiration for so many topic ideas.
- Thirdly, use the passive voice and not the active one. This will help you especially if you have a word count of 2,000 to 3,000 words.
- Lastly, always use a spell checker and proofread after writing. When proofreading, you may discover sentences or paragraphs that need restructuring. Similarly, using a spell checker will help get rid of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
How Do You Structure Your Essay
Beating those key points in mind, the next thing is to know how to properly structure your identity theft essay. The structure is simple: introduction, body, and conclusion. Your introduction should contain your topic, give hints on your essay and what you hope to achieve. The body of your essay should talk in detail, with appropriate examples. Lastly, your conclusion should summarize all your essay points and show if you have achieved your aim.
Free Identity Theft Essay Sample
Here’s a free sample of an essay on identity theft that will help you understand better:
With the increase of digitization in the world, the rate at which identity theft keeps occurring is bothersome. Every day, criminals work tirelessly to steal the personal information of thousands, if not millions of unsuspecting people.
Identity theft is so bad that it is America’s fastest-growing crime. Also, stealing another’s personal identity makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to do their job. Thus, it is necessary for people to keep their personal information safe. In the same manner, organizations should keep their documents and files to prevent identity theft.
The consequences of identity theft are that could get scammed, or worse, blacklisted from companies for lifestyle.
With this short sample, you should have as much inspiration as you need. Remember, your lecturer will scan your work for originality so you must not plagiarize. Also, remember to reference other relevant works to help as a body booster. In addition to this, make sure your paragraphs or sentences flow together. Lastly, always give real-life examples to support a stand.
These will go a long way in helping you to write an outstanding essay.
One more free sample of a long essay on identity theft:
Abstract
When an individual is targeted with identity theft, the person has to live with the effects and clean the chaos. The actions taken by the victim, the duration of recovery, as well as the effects of identity theft, usually depends on the type of identity theft.
Identity theft usually involves a number of effects on the victim as well as his or her family. The victim is forced to open a new account among others. As a victim of identity theft, it is normal that I and my family could experience anger as a first reaction. Identity thieves can use my information to damage my reputation on social media platforms. My reputation could be damaged which may cause loose of the job, customers, and termination of existing contracts.Change in victims’ rights has made it easier for the affected parties to get through the situation and recover. If such rights did not exist, then it would be hard for the victims to get justice for the crimes committed against them
Identity Theft
Effects of identity theft
When an individual is targeted with identity theft, the person has to live with the effects and clean the chaos. The worse thing is that the effects related to identity theft can occur for months or even years. Identity theft usually happens when another person has access to personal information including credit care, bank account number, name, and address among other personal details for economic benefit. The actions taken by the victim, the duration of recovery, as well as the effects of identity theft, usually depend on the type of identity theft (Wallace & Roberson, 2015).
Identity theft usually involves a number of effects on the victim as well as his or her family. The most common effect is involved with the finances. Identity theft can result in financial difficulties that could last for months or years after the personal information is exposed. The victim is forced to open a new account among others. Additionally, the victim can face financial problems if the thief takes over the investments along with other financials that can have an impact on the retirement plan of the victim, education of the children in addition to the mortgage among others (Wallace & Roberson, 2015).
As a victim of identity theft, it is normal that my family and I could experience anger as a first reaction. Other lasting and challenging emotions come to all affected victims. For example, my reputation and my family members’ could be affected after the thief uses the identity to commit crimes. This could be stressful. It could also affect job applications because the records can show up during a background check, which can lower self-esteem and bring about confusion. The family members could blame themselves for not being careful with their personal information.
The victims and the family members could feel helpless, become suicidal, anxious and some could have depression (Wallace & Roberson, 2015). Victims of identity theft could fear for their physical safety, lack of concentration, headache, abnormal sweating, body pain in addition to stomach and sleep issues.
Social and personal life
Identity thieves can use my information to damage my reputation on social media platforms. Nowadays, most professional works depend on social media networks to stay in touch with customers and other important partners. Additionally, I use social networks to stay in touch with friends and family members, therefore, my reputation could be damaged and my job put on the line based on the damaged information (Wallace & Roberson, 2015). The thief can post false information pretending to be me, which may damage the personal relationship between me and my friends, business partners, customers and family members.
My reputation could be damaged, as a result, causing loss of the job, customers, and termination of existing contracts. Additionally, I could lose the trust of my friends, which can have a serious effect on my social life. It is possible for some of my friends to stay away from me and avoid communicating. It takes a lot of time to find trustworthy friends. This could cause loneliness; stress and depression that could have a serious effect on my performance along with concentration at work and home (Wallace & Roberson, 2015).
Victims’ rights
Change in victims’ rights has made it easier for the affected parties to get through the situation and recover. For example, the federal government enables victims not to be liable for any kind of bills accumulated by the thieves. Additionally, the law has helped the victims with important steps and procedures that can help report the case and notify the authority to avoid charges. The victims are first required to contact the bureaus and put a fraud alert on their files (Wallace & Roberson, 2015). Congress has been able to pass an act concerning identity theft issues. Therefore, anyone who violates the act is investigated by federal agencies and the crimes prosecuted. In the end, the victims are able to obtain the justice they need. The change in victims’ rights has made it easier to track the imposters and get them to justice departments.
If such rights did not exist, it would be difficult for the victims to get justice for the crimes committed against them. Additionally, the victims could be charged for the crimes they did not commit, which could lead to life imprisonment and paying the accumulated bills. Lack of victims’ rights could have made things even harder for the victims because they could have a hard time recovering and face extreme losses. There would be increased rates of suicidal deaths as many victims could be depressed by the situation. Finally, lack of victims’ rights could have caused many imposters and criminals to be on the loose (Wallace & Roberson, 2015).
Victim advocate
As an advocate, I will first help the victim to place a fraud alert. The next thing to do is to help the victim create a file for identity theft that will have all relevant documents related to the fraud and ensure it’s kept in a safe place. I will then educate the victim on his or her rights that have been established by the federal government. The rights will help the victims to protect themselves (Wallace & Roberson, 2015). The next step is to ensure that the case is reported to the federal trade commission as well as the law enforcement. An extended fraud alert will also be important whereby I will advise the victim to have his or her unaffected financials and other assets frozen until the case is closed in order to protect them from being stolen. Finally, I will refer the victim to medical counseling so that he or she is helped through the process of recovery.
References
Wallace, H., & Roberson, C. (2015). Victimology: Legal, psychological, and social perspectives (4th ed.).
Conclusion
There’s no need to worry about not being able to come up with a good essay. With this guide, writing your essay has just become an exciting experience. So, good luck!
