Let’s Get Serious For a Minute: Identity Theft is Just the Beginning

USA – In today’s society, everyone is aware of Identity Theft yet people still won’t take the necessary precautions to protect themselves.  People will take a credit card bill or prescription drugs directions and just simply throw it in the trash.  They won’t shred it; they’ll just throw it away and make available to anyone who is willing to sift through some trash in order to find some information.  Surely these people are aware that you can buy a cross-cut shredder at Wal-Mart for $30, right?  Or is it that they are just too lazy to do it?  It’s much easier to just throw the paper in the trash.  Of course, when these lazy people are hit with Identity Theft, they are scream from the roof tops, “Why me?”  

The title of this article, however, says that Identity Theft is just the beginning and it’s scary to think that people are truly this naïve.  We clearly live in the information and technology age but we also live in the “Need to Know” era.  Today’s society has this distasteful urge to know every single detail about something or someone.  In doing so, we have become bed partners with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.  These social platforms enable us to know just about anything and everything about what piques our interest.  For example, I have a friend who is completely infatuated, almost stalker status, with Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas.  He wanted to know everything about the blonde bombshell, even her bra cup size, so he started searching to build his knowledge base.  It’s this type of behavior that is frightening and even though my friend’s obsession with Fergie is fairly mild, there are people in today’s society who are far from mild.

While some people are careful and do shred their bills and documents, they fail to be careful when it comes to talking.  My wife and I take our daughter to gymnastics every week and every week we hear two other parents, women, talking about the latest happenings and drama in their lives.  Granted, it’s pretty normal to have a parent to talk and brag about their child but these two women cross a line that would make a stalker, pedophile, or serial killer have premature ejaculation.  One of the women not only talked about the stress occurring between her and her husband but she also went on, in great detail, to share her daily routine.  Her amazing over share revealed where her kids go to school, what time she drops them off and picks them up from school, where she takes Yoga class, what time her Yoga class starts, and how (where) she keeps her kids busy during Yoga.

This woman was not only sharing specific details about her family and her life but she was also sharing them rather loudly.  First of all, why was this woman sharing such intimate details with another gymnastics parent?  Second, why was she talking about it so loudly?  Sharing this information out loud is almost as good, for some people, as finding a credit card number.  Do these people not realize WHO could be listening?  This world, this society, this town is not safe . . . not like it used to be.  These two women, and other just like them, need to continue to protect their identity but they also need to stop talking.  This IS the Need to Know era and Identity Theft is just the beginning.