Theft
The term "theft" is used to refer to criminal activities in which an individual wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal data fraudulently in order for him or her to experience an economic gain. It is important to note that when an individual is able to access the personal data of an individual such as Social Security number, bank account number, and any other valuable identifying data, one can be able to use it to benefit from it. There have been cases in both the USA and Canada, whereby; people have reported losing money from their personal accounts and in other cases; they have reported that other people have taken over their identity. It is easy for a criminal to have access to an individual’s personal information, and then use that information for personal gain such as applying for loans, taking mortgages and purchasing properties.
There have been various cases where people have been caught and convicted for their fraudulent activities (Biegelman, 2009). Reported CaseOn September 8, 2015, Rafael Sanchez from Pennsylvania was sentenced to 94 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and he was ordered to pay $694,237 in terms of restitution to the IRS. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to submit false claims and identity theft. He together with other conspirators used the identities of third parties to prepare for federal income tax returns fraudulently. He had been able to acquire hundreds of thousands of dollars from tax refund checks before he was caught (Sileo, 2010). New InsightsIt is easy for a criminal to gain one’s personal knowledge, use it at your expense and economically benefit without you as an individual knowing. Although in these crimes, there is rarely the need to use force they have adverse effects on the people affected. One should be careful about who has access to one’s personal information and discard effectively things such as emails as people can use them to gain one’s personal information.
The severity of the Crime
This is a serious crime. The reasons for this are as follows. It can be easily conducted if personal data such as a person’s social security number falls into the wrong hands. The criminal activity can also go on for a long period without the victim knowing that his or her identity has been stolen. It is not easy to control because a person can be involved in this activity while he or she is in another state i.e. a person assumes an identity of a person who is in New York, while he lives in Wyoming. In this case, they had assumed identities of different people to file for tax returns, and the victims were not aware of these activities (Night, 2015). Does the Disposition of the Crime Seem Fair?No, it is not fair. Although there was no use of force, therefore, there was no aggravated damage, the sentence seems to be light i.e. the criminal was given a sentence of only …
