Identity Theft
by Katherine Snell
Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States. Thousands of Americans are finding themselves victims of identity theft every year. Tax-related identity fraud cases are especially increasing, resulting in the delay or complete denial of tax refunds for many people. Identity Theft
April 17th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I gave this pod cast a four star rating because it is well organized and it includes relevant information and appropriate audio and visual graphics. The introduction immediately grabs the viewer’s attention and the rest of the content and organization maintain it throughout the presentation. Katherine does a good job of setting up the problem, defining potentially unknown terms and providing relevant and useful examples. She establishes her credibility on the topic in the beginning and continues to maintain it throughout as she introduces her solid and reliable sources such as the Federal Trade Commission, The Wall Street Journal, and the IRS national taxpayer advocate. Katherine does all of this while speaking clearly and at a good steady pace. The visual graphics throughout the pod cast are relevant and correctly formatted. Also, she uses humor effectively which keeps the viewer engaged throughout. The audio additions are also well-timed and appropriate. One thing I might suggest is that Katherine do away with the section in the beginning where the visual is a PowerPoint slide with the exact text she is saying. Having a slide with so much text on it distracts the viewer and also causes him/her to read ahead. This section would be stronger with a different visual, perhaps a PowerPoint slide with just the terms on it and no typed definitions. All in all it was a very informative and useful pod cast.
April 20th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I would give this a 4 Star rating. Some of the things that I thought were really useful include:
-the slide at the beginning that describes the “methods of stealing.” Although there was a verbal explanation, it is always helpful to have a visual.
-I really liked the examples of how theft has occurred. The Girl Scouts one really caught me as to how low people will go.
-The recommendations on how one can protect themselves from identity theft is something that everyone needs to hear.
-And lastly, The Office bit at the end was CLASSIC!
The biggest problem that I found was with the recording of the voice. One could easily hear how you would stop recording after every sentence or two. Also, you could hear how the recording was done at different times and how you were probably in different rooms throughout the process. But this is not your fault as you had to use what was available. There was also a couple of times when you have have long pauses in the middle of a sentence.
Overall, good podcast with very helpful information.