IT $2532,$ Spring $2024($Fraud$)$

The case:

Consider the case of an intrepid identity thief. The perpetrator, Susan, encounters the victim, John, online in a chat room while he is at home. John never chats with Susan while he is at work. In the begiming of his "conversation," John is only using his real first name, with no other method of identifying himself $($ie$,$ no last name or even last name initial$).$ However, over a series of online conversations between Susan and John, he does reveal some personal details about his life $($specifically$,$ his marital status, children, and region of the US that he lives in$).$

Eventually, Susan offers John some piece of information, such as perhaps an investment tip, as a trick to get John's email address from him. Once she gets his email address, an email exchange begins outside of the chat room, wherein Susan purports to give John her real name, thus encouraging John to do the same. Of course, the perpetrator's name is fictitious, such as "Mary;" But Susan now has John's real name, region of the US $($such as "Midwest" or "Southeast"$),$ marital status, and number of children.

Susan has several options she can try, but we will choose a simple one. She begins by using the Web to get John's home address and phone number. She can then use this information to get more of John's personally identifiable information $($PII$)$ in a variety of ways. However, if John works in a large company, and she can find a way to identify it$,$ she can just call $($or enlist someone to call$),$ claiming to be John's wife or another close relative, wanting to verify personnel data. If Susan is clever enough, she may come away with John's social security number. Then it is a trivial matter $($as we will see in Chapter $13,$ "Cyber Detective"$)$ to get John's credit report and to get credit cards in his name.

From this scenario, you must answer the following questions:

Was John's initial approach, OK$?$ Why or why not? You cannot just answer "Yes" or $"$no$"$

What reasonable steps could John have taken to protect his identity in the chat room?

What steps should any employer take to prevent being unwittingly complicit in identity theft?

Write three paragraphs, not numbered. Each will obviously correspond to the three questions above. Write your three paragraphs below this line. If your answer continues to the next page, that is fine.