Since that conversation, I have been pondering on how one could talk about the world-wide identity theft pandemic without scaring anyone in the audience. A "How-To" workshop entitled "Identity Theft for Fun and Profit" targeted to an audience of scoundrels could leave the audience walking out confident and enthusiastic about the future opportunity of becoming an identity thief. But even one or two of the rogues, who lacked the nefarious skills of the others, might get scared that they might be made or not be able to swindle as much as the more skilled villains.
It occurred to me that talking about identity theft and countermeasures is like talking about global warming or any other critical socioeconomic issue. They are all scary. They all require immediate action by ALL people. Sharing the facts of global warming, child prostitution, drug and substance abuse, terrorism, disease, or identity theft is going to scare some people. Obscuring the statistics and indisputable facts, serves no one.
A couple of years ago, the Wall Street Journal devoted an entire technology section of the paper to identity theft. In the related editorial, the editor stated that it was not the intention of the newspaper to scare people, however, that scaring us might be the best thing. The best thing for what? To take action.
The challenge to address critical issues is that immediate action is necessary to prevent the calamity. It is easy to sit back and do nothing. In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore uses a metaphor of a frog jumping into hot water, the shock of which causes the frog to jump out; verses, a frog sitting comfortably in warm water that is gradually heated to boiling that ultimately cooks the frog. Most people are like the frog that gets cooked (or rescued in An Inconvenient Truth). We don't realize the peril that we are in because change or neglect is gradual. Eventually we are cooked. We become a victim because we didn't act on the warning signs. Global warming may be worsening minute after minute, unless we take action now. The threat of identity theft grows daily too, and it is only a matter of time before we individually fall victim unless we take preventive countermeasures now.
The fact of the matter is that identity theft is scary, if you understand the plethora of consequences. Certain types of identity theft have been downplayed to assure confidence in certain consumer services. That's dangerous because there are many separate and different insidious faces of identity theft that are that people ought to be aware of and taking action on preventing.
Having some of the proverbial hot water splashed on you for shock, just may be the wake up call to take the action to prevent victimization. Sometimes we need to be scared!
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