Identity theft and related fraudulent activities affect approximately one in twenty-five adults each year across western societies. The Internet provides a new avenue for obtaining identity tokens and identifying information and increases the scale on which identity theft can be perpetrated. Recent research has suggested that fear of these types of crimes now matches or exceeds the fear of traditional place-based crimes, and has the potential to curtail online activities and hinder the further development of e-commerce applications. In this article, we conduct exploratory research identifying predictors of fear of cyber-identity theft and related fraudulent activities, based on the analysis of items included in the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (2007). Fear was predicted by a generalized fear of crime component and a specific Internet exposure component. Traditional predictors of fear of crime were insignificant or weak predictors, highlighting the need for further research. © 2013 The Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Criminology
Research Field:	Criminology not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Justice and the law
Objective Field:	Criminal justice
UTAS Author:	Spiranovic, CA (Dr Caroline Spiranovic)
ID Code:	93074
Year Published:	2013
Web of Science® Times Cited:	36
Deposited By:	Faculty of Law
Deposited On:	2014-07-10
Last Modified:	2018-03-08
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