Source: Quick One: Stop Calling it ‘Identity Theft’ – SecurityBytes
A bank might let you take out a credit card in my name. But hey, if it wasn’t me, that’s just Credit Card Fraud, right?
A pay-day lender might give you a 7000% APR loan in my name, I guess. Credit Fraud.
The government might let you claim benefits in my name. Benefit Fraud.
You might apply for a mortgage in my name. Mortgage Fraud.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
In none of the above theoretical cases was I involved; I wasn’t the perpetrator and I wasn’t the victim.
And yet, by recasting (some) of these activities as ‘Identity Fraud’ I somehow become the one responsible for it having happened and the one who is the victim. The only way I get to be victim is if one of these organisations is duped and then they can’t or won’t address their mistakes or shortfalls and therefore they choose to pass the buck to me.