Would someone creating a website and posting someone else's name and picture as the author be considered identity theft, or does this only apply to someone stealing a credit card number and using it, and is the first illegal?

zbeckabee

Identity theft (or identity fraud) is the deliberate assumption of another person's identity, usually to gain access to their finances or frame them for a crime. Less commonly, it is to enable illegal immigration, terrorism, espionage, or changing identity permanently. It may also be a means of blackmail, especially if medical privacy or political privacy has been breached, and if revealing the activities undertaken by the thief under the name of the victim would have serious consequences like loss of job or marriage. While identity theft appears to cover the entire waterfront of bad acts done while pretending to be someone else, assuming a false identity with the knowledge and approval of the person being impersonated, such as for cheating on an exam, is not considered to be identity theft. Because identity theft is so broad a concept any discussion of it should quickly narrow down to the specific case like credit card fraud. Likewise any proposed remedy of identity theft is in actuality a remedy for a specific case of identity theft, with the unachieveable exception of 100% perfect verification. biometrics is assumed to be such a technology, but in reality risk worsening the situation leading to reverse burden of proof problems in courtrooms as biometrics can also be spoofed as part of an attack. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft May 06 06, 6:36 PM

bigponder

If you created a site, pretending to be someone else, and represented that person in a demeaning or defamatory way, you could be guilty of libel. May 06 06, 7:52 PM

pjotr

So doing such a thing is libel and not identity theft? Or is it both? May 07 06, 12:47 AM

bloomsby

Pjotr. It's impossible to give a general answer of the kind you're hoping for. The kind of thing you describe could be anything on a scale ranging from "harmless prank" to "massive fraud". Impersonation without any intention of committing a crime isn't usually a crime. I think you're interpreting the expression "identity theft" too broadly here. May 07 06, 5:31 AM