The world of identity theft is at the same time small and large.  It is small in that all it takes is two people.  A thief and a victim.  From shoulder surfing (an ant where the thief actually looks over the shoulder of the victim to watch them punch in their passwords, or login information) to more sophisticated means of sabotaging a credit card machine or ATM to read information in regards to credit and banking information (that system is called skimming) it seems as though all anyone needs to pull off something like identity fraud is the desire to do it.  But it’s large in that it is happening all over the world and can and is happening everywhere.  The University of Central Missouri knows very well how close identity theft can hit home.  Amanda J. Drake was recently convicted of an identity theft scheme in which she and her husband targeted the students of the university community.  Her husband would take advantage of his job as university police officer at the University of Central Missouri in order to procure for himself and his wife a list of all students who were enrolled in the school.  His wife would then use the information on those lists, such as Social Security numbers, and birthdates, to acquire credit cards in the students’ names for her own personal use.  The wife was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison.  For his part in the scheme, the husband and former university police officer was sentenced to five years probation.  It just goes to show that there are no safe places to leave that kind of information.  In this day and age, information is as valuable as money because information means money and money is what drives most crimes that are not considered to be crimes of passion.  Follow the money trail and you’ll find your victim.

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