YOU AND YOUR IDENTITY

An Essay on Identity Theft
By Chrysa Hazelene J. Sabuelo

With the  introduction of internet and its trends whether in emailing, gaming or social networking, information and identity plays both an important and critical role. People nowadays have become so engrossed with the trends that they become less aware of the what's-not-to-be done and the risks of being too open in the online world. In other words, exposing too much information without thinking of the possible consequences.

 Personal or not, information is powerful. It creates an identity to someone and if used for malicious intent could greatly affect one's reputation, credibility, and well-being.

News of identity theft and fraud that spread across social media is no longer new to us. Among them rumors of death of the famous comedian Rowan Atkinson and even the Canadian pop singer Avril Lavigne. Videos on YouTube claims that the singer was already dead, that the one seen on the cameras is just a doppelganger and that her relatives were mum about it. Even in your school, you must have heard of someone in your class who was rumored to be dead and that the source was that person's personal Facebook account news was spread on other sites. These are just few of the many cases. The question is: How does this happen? This happens when "fraudsters" accessed enough information like name, birth, status, address and previous events to commit crimes such as extortion, libel and etc. This could take place anytime, anywhere, in any medium whether the victim is alive or deceased.

The year 2016 marks another evident that identity theft is still a problem we face recently. In a news article posted on kickerdaily.com on February 28, 2016, a public school teacher was said to be in huge debt because of identity theft. The victim was said to have had loans on three bank accounts which he claimed he never had signed on. As s result, he is deducted an amount of P 9, 000.00 in his monthly payroll. Even celebrities and famous personalities are not safe from this. Once, a Fil-Norweigan model had her identity stolen by a call center agent who used her photo to trick an Australian guy to send her money. Yes, even one's photo is powerful enough to be subject for identity theft,

These days, common medium for stealing and misusing one's identity is the internet via any social sites and yes, the online world is no longer safe for us because at any moment, a fraudster may steal your identity for numerous reasons. Among them includes opening bank accounts, obtain credit card numbers, loans, state benefits,  contracts or obtain genuine documents such as passports, licenses and id as well as just to simply ruin your reputation by creating scams or scandals.

Indeed, wherever we are, we are vulnerable to this type of crime. However, we can also protect ourselves and shield our identity to create barriers from fraudsters. The only way to do so is to be mindful with what we share and secure our information from the public. Your personal information is too precious and your identity depends on it. So beware.