College Students Are At Risk for Identity Theft

Phillip Kuhlman reports in the Devil's Tale that Identity Theft is the fastest growing crime in the country and college students are very much at risk.

Jeri Ledford from About.com describes how identity thieves steal student's identities:

• 40% of college students receive multiple pre-approved credit card offers that are usually partially filled out with the recipient's name, address, and other personal data. 30% throw the form into the trash without destroying them. An identity thief can take it out of the trash can, fill in the rest of the blanks, and call the toll free phone number provided on the form, thereby stealing the student's identity.
• 30% of college students do not balance their checking and savings account statements. They are not aware of legitimate or fraudulent charges that shows that a thief has been withdrawing money in small amounts from their accounts. In time, this builds up to large amounts of money.
• Most college students use their computers to access on-line banking, pay bills, order merchandise, do social networking, and communicate in every area of their lives. Lax computer security puts them at risk of having their identities stolen.
• Many college courses require that students use their social security numbers to log into websites that are used to post homework assignments or other course communications, and 48% of grades are posted by social security numbers. If a thief watches the student enter his/her social security number or looks at the posted grades, the thief can gain access to that number along with a lot more personal information about the student.
• Many students use laptops in class to take notes and organize coursework documents. If the laptop is stolen, the thief will find their personal information.
• Students are at risk of having their wallets, purses, or backpacks stolen in a dorm room or at a party and their identities are then stolen.

If a student's identity is stolen, he/she has to clear up the mess. It's almost as if they have been assaulted as it can be a long and tedious process to rebuild one's identity.

The Federal Trade Commission provides 4 basic steps to take if you become a victim of identity theft:

1. Call a Fraud Alert to the three consumer reporting companies - Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. A fraud alert stays on your credit report for 90 days and can keep an identity thief from setting up new credit card accounts in the student's name.
2. Close breached accounts. It is better to do it in person, rather than on-line or via e-mail. Write to bank and credit card companies to create a paper trail. Supply each company with copies of supporting documents and send them by certified mail. Request a return receipt to have a record of when each company received the written documents.
3. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Fill out an on-line complaint form or call the FTC Identity Theft Hotline at (877) 438-4338.
4. File a report with the police in the area where the theft took place. Tell the police you want to file an identity theft report. If you can't do it in person, ask if you can place the report over the phone or on-line. If the police seem reluctant, ask them to fill out a Miscellaneous Incident Report.

Does it seem realistic that a college student who is in the middle of taking tests or writing term papers has the time to do all this?

A better way is for the student or his/her family to have an Identity Protection Service that includes the student and helps restore his/her identity to pretheft status. This Identity Protection Service provides:

• An affordable Expense Reimbursement Insurance Policy to cover the costs of repairing the student's identity.
• Monitoring of National Databases.
• Staff at the Service immediately notify the student if his/her identity has been stolen, unlike banks and credit card companies who let you know a month later.
• A professional team calls the agencies and does all the paper work.
• The team works together with law enforcement to find the thief and put him/her in jail

Now students and their parents can feel safe. They can feel secure that if the student's identity has been stolen, there is help to get it back.