Have you ever done a search on Google for yourself, and yes there will be someone with a similar name, but have you checked their middle name or middle initial, Sure you have ! . . . Now click on images, and soon you will realize that your entire life could be affected by what people find online, and who they may think is you.
Your friends, collogues, employers and just about any other situation could be affected by other-people being mistaken for you.
In this article we will focus on (a) Several real-life cases of extreme ‘Identity-fraud-theft’, (b) How secret hidden algorithms can be used to manipulate (just your device) and what you see online and (c) How (well-intention) search engines have become a dangerous reference for manipulating facts.
example: a researcher of digitalCaribbean.live has been puzzled by: if you did a search for example, ‘John Smith’ why would the first! results be about someone named ‘Gilford John Jamal Smith’, then he added ‘John Smith Jamaica’ and then ‘John Smith Belize’ but the results were still very puzzling; how did that happen, and did someone intentionally caused the search-engine to respond with the incorrect choices as the first result?. (please note: the real name that was used was not John Smith)
As the lyrics from Michael Jackson’s song goes, you’ve been hit by a smooth criminal .
1). Extreme Identity Theft & Fraud
In the first real-life case of extreme identity fraud: A Belizean named ‘Oscar F_ _ _ _ _ _ _’ was held at a detention center overseas for a fairly minor crime, when he was released he was contacted by his cousin who told him that the FBI had came to his former place of residence looking for him, it was revealed that they were investigating a fraud case which reportedly netted him several hundred thousand dollars.
But Oscar did not commit the crime and was living a very poor existence. It was later realized by the FBI that Oscar’s identity was used to commit the fraud. The perpetrators also apparently knew that Oscar F_ _ _ _ _ _ _ was from Belize and all they needed to do was assume his identity and if he was incarcerated it would be concluded that he was a career criminal who had committed a lot of crimes.
But the case against Oscar F_ _ _ _ _ _ _, was realized to be, not just a case of identity theft, but to also make it seem as if he had committed many high-dollar crimes.
To be continued, Sunday, July 30th. 2023