The Columbia County Sheriff's Office arrested 44-year-old Patricia Wright (above) on Monday and charged her with two counts of financial identity fraud. She remains in their detention center under a $10,200 bond.
Identity theft and identity fraud is an offense when someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data -- especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data -- can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense.
In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victims's names.
In many cases, a victim's losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible.
No comments:
Post a Comment