Identity Theft

The USA Today is running an article entitled, "11 Charged in TJX Identity Theft." The article states, "The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday said it charged 11 people in the theft of millions of credit and debit card numbers of customers for nine major U.S. retailers, including TJX, the parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other stores." It continues, "The massive computer data breach at TJX may have affected 94 million Visa and MasterCard accounts — nearly double the previous estimate by the retailer — according to court filings last year."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

• Name five things about yourself that you are most proud of? Why are you proud of these things?
• Do you think it's nice when other people act as "copy-cats"? Why/why not? Why do you think that other people would want to act as "copy-cats"?
  
• Do you think it's important to store your things safely? Why/why not? What is your favorite thing that you own? How do you take care of this thing?
  
• What kinds of things should you do to make sure that you are safe on the Internet? Why do these things keep you safe?
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Identity; "Court Filings"; Bedeviled; and, Retail/Wholesale.
  
• When people intentionally hurt other people, do you think that they believe they are doing something wrong? Why/why not? Why would somebody do something if he/she believes that it is wrong.
  
• What three questions would you ask if you wanted to learn more about protecting information on the Internet? How would the answers to these questions help you protect this information?
• Imagine that you wanted to find out how much money existed in the world. How would you do this? What is the definition of money? Does money have to be something that can be held? Why/why not?
  
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