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Identity theft is termed to be happening when a person impersonates another person to obtain some financial or other benefits. In modern society, many activities require people to provide other companies their personal information to get certain tasks done. This and many more reasons have led to increasing chances of identity thefts. Many companies have made laws and provisions stating the punishment that would be given to a criminal who gets caught trying to obtain another individual’s personal information or impersonating another person. Several legal responses of countries are mentioned below: United States: in US, several laws have been made which make the possession of any identification information of another individual to intentionally possess, use or transfer any data without legal authority a federal crime. The punishment involved could be imprisonment (or punishment) for 5 to 30 years plus fines. The Federal Trade Commission also tracks the incidents and the amount of dollars involved in ID thefts. Many states have also set offices to help their citizens in recovering and more importantly, avoiding identity thefts. The Federal Trade Commission also carries surveys which show the percentage increase or decrease in the amount of ID thefts. The latest report showed that in 2008, Identity thefts have increased by 21%. But, identity thefts due to credit cards have reduced to 21% as compared to 41% in 2002. Australia: an imprisonment of five years as penalty is given to a person if he/she is guilty with having intention of causing loss to another individual. This provision was made against identity thefts and fraud related issues. But, different states in Australia enacted different laws which more or less covered the same points and punishment. Hong Kong: in Hong Kong, a person is sentenced for 14 years in prison if he/she is o caught impersonating another person with intention of fraud and malice. There are legislations and also a post for privacy commissioner is established to consent how much information can one obtain or disclose. Canada: in Canada, a person is imprisoned for not more than ten years if he/she impersonates a person to gain any unfairly advantage over the victim. This rule governs only agencies, federal government and corporations. Some other rules are made for disclosure and use of personal data by people and agencies. India: in India, if a person is caught stealing or extracting any data from a computer or any other portable medium of another individual, then he/she has to pay the victim a compensation which shouldn’t exceed more than one crore rupees. France: a fine up to 75,000 franc and imprisonment of up to five years is given to an individual who is convicted of performing identity theft. United Kingdom: in UK, there are laws and acts which cover protection of all the personal data which an organization holds and also forces government bodies and organizations to provide better protection to their consumer’s personal data given in credit report. Identity theft is an illegal activity that can cause a lot of damage in the victim’s life. The governments realize this fact and have placed many laws which protect people from these thefts. Free-credit-reports.com can be visited to check credit reports and to view more information regarding protection given by countries.
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