Cyberspace Identity Theft: Some Legal Issues under the Iranian Law

Abstract

The advent of the Internet has introduced many new forms of crimes. It has also transformed old forms of crimes, which are now being committed in new ways. In effect, cyberspace not only offers new and highly sophisticated opportunities for criminal misconduct, but also creates the potential to commit traditional crimes in a modern way. It has opened the door to criminal behavior in ways that would never have been possible in the past. The identity thief uses information relating to the identity of another person's such as name, address, telephone number, mother's maiden name, social security number, social insurance number, health card number, bank account information, driver's license number and date of birth. It is stealing someone's identity information to commit theft, fraud or other crimes. This paper aims to identify the legal issues on the cyberspace theft of identity in Iran, and to identify and analyze the laws relating to theft in Iran.