Having made decent progress through my book Identity Theft, Inc. I have come across some intriguing findings. First of all, I managed to find the identity of this anonymous author  – Glenn Hastings. If you Google this man you’ll find he is a male born in 1966, you’ll also find his accomplice – Richard Marcus. The interesting part is that you cannot locate these men’s whereabouts. This is because they are on the run, having never been caught for stealing thousands of identities and impersonating countless individuals.

My title “Is a criminal always a criminal?” refers to some suspicions that have aroused while reading the text. Hastings claims that the novel is “repenting by teaching how people can protect themselves against scores of rampant ID thieves.” He also states that he is “donating a fair share of [his] royalties from this book to a special fund created to aid victims of identity theft.” Besides these claims, there is also reason to believe that this novel is a tool to potential future identity thieves.

The way Hastings writes “it would be inifinitely better to assume another person’s identity (dead or living) and obtain real credit cards in their name…” or “A good con man knows how to instantly put his victims at ease. Make them feel special.” seems too specific to simply be an explanation to support the plot. Rather than supporting the plot, due to their over-specific nature, these excerpts seem more like hints to potential future identity thieves.

My suspicions may be contradicted later on in the book. One possibility is that the overall process is not too clearly described and could not easily be repeated by the reader without a great deal of personal thought and procedure. In addition to this, the actions taken to steal identities in the story are from the 90’s and are mainly outdated. Technology like biometric identification makes the use of most processes in the book impossible today.

I am definitely enjoying this book and have found it a very smooth read so far with an excellent plotline.