The Heinous Growth of Impersonation

The resemblance was uncanny. “Be darned if you don’t look just like him” Jeb cackled to his brother as he pulled on the sport coat to match the pants and vest, a stark contrast to the dirty coveralls and sweat-stained T he wore everyday as a foundry man. Growing the moustache was a much more time-consuming element of the hoax, but as he looked in the mirror he had to concur he looked every bit Mr. Hareson. The 40-something industrialist tycoon was one of the wealthiest men in town, and the two of them had every intention of indulging in his wealth with a visit to the town bank that afternoon. Frank donned the fedora he’d swiped from a coffee shop that morning and headed out.

The teller didn’t even bat an eye......

Up until recent times, the modern scare of identity theft was little more than criminal impersonation. The film Catch Me If You Can, with Leonardo DiCaprio portraying the identity-forging genius of Frank Abagnale Jr., gave an almost charming character to the pursuit of taking a little something for yourself from those so bloated they probably wouldn’t even notice it’s gone.

Everyone can likely remember some amusing personal and less-than-severe example in their own lives. I grew up with a pair of twin brothers who, while not Siamese, were very similar in appearance to each other. One delivered papers with me, the other did not. That didn’t stop the unemployed sibling from making the rounds one day to collect the monies owed on the route and pocketing it for himself. Heck, even my wife is guilty to a degree in that a month or two back she borrowed the Costco membership card of a co-worker, who is also a long black-haired Asian woman, to buy a vacuum she had her eyes on there.

All kidding aside, today identity fraud is of paramount concern to any and all individuals who expose private information to any digital transfer medium. There were 8.4 million reported cases of identity theft in the U.S. in 2007, and a recent CBC 5th Estate documentary suggested 1 in 10 Canadians will suffer some form of identity theft in their life. Almost all adults possess a credit card and have made purchases online at some point, and until recently most of us never thought twice about any negative ramifications in doing so.

Times have changed; there is an abundance of e-thieves across the globe working in a vast network of portals to exchange, buy and sell personal information gathered through insecure processing systems. Credit card numbers and 3-digit authorization codes are, naturally, a hot commodity. It used to be that if your credit card was lost or stolen it was no longer in your possession, but that’s no longer the case.

The aforementioned CBC documentary added that some consumers are shying away from online shopping as a result of fears borne out of the identity theft crisis. Here at Cymax Stores, we feel that in the interest of ourselves, our customers, and an industry that offers great convenience and incomparable selection, steps must be taken to protect the individual so very crucial to our continued success - You!

To this end, Cymax offers 100 % absolutely secure purchasing to all customers with our use of Thawte and Hacker Safe, 128-bit SSL software which is the highest encryption protection commercially available. When you place an order with CymaxStores, and enter your email address, you are automatically assigned an account with us. You can come back at any time and log into your account with your email address, and all of the data in your account will be accessible, in the event that you wish to change any of your contact information or you wish to place future orders with us. No credit card information is ever stored – which means it’s not there should an extremely unlikely security breach ever occur in the first place.

It’s best to be wary, and in today’s smaller and smaller world anyone and everyone should be urged to be overly cognizant any time personal information is transferred. Online shopping is no exception to this, to be sure. However, when shopping at www.cymax.com, you can breathe a little easier every time you complete a purchase knowing you’re safe with us.