Online Users’ Identity Theft and Coping Strategies, Attribution and Sense of Urgency: A Non-Linear Quadratic Effect Assessment

Defined as someone using other’s personally identifiable information to make profit or commit crimes, identity theft has become a critical problem for the whole society. The development of Internet technology has made this problem worse. Results of empirical assessment including non-linear quadratic effect prove that when users have the perception of more control over the identity theft threat, they are likely to find solutions, feel it is their responsibility and has more intentions for identity theft prevention actions to prevent identity theft. Interestingly, our theory and empirical results suggest that quadratic effect exist among critical constructs in our theoretical model and that the underlying complexity require further investigation and that linear models may not be necessarily sufficient. We further contribute by developing theory and empirical validation of non-linear quadratic effect among key constructs related to Identity theft in the context of IT security literature.