Cyber-Identity Theft

Abstract

Internet technology facilitates “faceless” transactions. At the same time, a new set of risks arises. In this article, we focus on the Internet-related risks associated with identity theft. Specifically, our objectives are to explain electronic-based identity theft (i.e., cyber-identity theft) and to explore the impact of cyber-identity theft on consumers, businesses, organizations and public policies. Our article makes two specific contributions to the identity theft literature: (a) it explains identity theft as it relates to the Internet and (b) it defines key methods of cyber-identity theft.