Is There A Link Between Identity Theft And The English Language?

As noted on the identity theft statistics page, we wonder whether there is a link between identity theft and the English language.

As well as doing a little asking of international friends who all are ignorant of the problem, we have been doing some online research. One of the best tools for online research is called Google Trends .

By clicking on the link and then typing 'identity theft' into the 'search trends' box at the top of the page, a very interesting statistic will be revealed to you. Look at the language section on the bottom left side of the page. as you can see, over 90 percent of all searches made with Google for the term are in English.

This does not necessarily prove a link between identity theft and the English language, but it does offer some solid support for the theory.

More important would be a solid understanding of why this link exists. We wish that we knew. There must be a range of possible theories, however we feel that the widespread use of databases for marketing and government administration must be a factor. So much personal information concentrated into such places must offer a potential goldmine to thieves and fraudsters.

It might also be a factor that so many so-called 'small towns' in the UK and USA are now so car orientated that very few people know others in their neighbourhood. This means that almost anyone can blend into the environment and pretend to be someone else.

Yes, we realise that cars are available everywhere else too. However, it is quite simply almost impossible to live in the US or UK without a car. These societies are far more geographically mobile than most others or than at any other time in their past.

Perhaps the greater desire of the English language press to publicise identity theft as a problem helps to promote it as a possible income for crooks, or makes everyone more paranoid than in other nations? Who can say?

We put these theories 'out there' for others to try and build upon. If there is a link between identity theft and the English language, there must be other places where it is evident.

Back to: Identity Theft Statistics