Six Tips to Protect College Students from Identity Theft

It should really be no surprise that since 2005, more than a third of the victims of identity theft in the United States are college students. That's because students rarely take precautions to protect themselves agains identity theft, because lots of people have potential access to their personal information, and because they are the recipients of a ton of credit card and other commercial junk mailings.

Here are some suggestions from LifeLock CEO Todd Davis on how college students can protect themselves against identity thieves.

1. Before going off to campus, students should purchase a shredder and use it to destroy anything they may throw away that contains personal information about tem; report cards, financial aid forms, housing information, class schedules, etc. A good rule for students: if you aren't going to keep it in a secure file, shred it!

2. College students generally share housing and live in close proximity to lots of other students. As a result, many people are in and out of their living areas, including people they may not know well. Therefore, to protect against identity theft, students should not leave identifying documents where they can be easily found, and should password protect important information on their computers.

3. Parents, have your son or daughter order a free credit report, and check it for problems. You can get one free report a year, and resolve any problems you identify.

4. In the most recent three years, more than two hundred universities, colleges, school districts and student lending organizations have lost personal information on nearly 9 million students, faculty, and staff. Despite increases in institutional security, social security numbers and other critical identifiers are lost or stolen at a steady pace. Thus, it makes sense to take steps to make sure you have protected your identity in the event your information becomes vulnerable to identity thieves.

5. Reduce your junk mail. All of us have mailboxes jammed with offers for credit cards, instant credit, and merchandise. Opt out of these and other junk mail and pre-approved credit card offers. Identity thieves can steal these offers from your mailbox or trash (remember the shredder). Then, in a matter of minutes, they fill out those applications, change your address to theirs, and subsequently charge their purchases to you.

6. Have free fraud alerts placed on personal information. Fraud alerts, offered by the major credit bureaus at no cost, mean that credit agencies will contact you directly to get your approval whenever someone tries to open a new credit account in your name or change your address. Thus, even if a thief manages to obtain your information, you can potentially stop him or her from opening new a new account or making an address change on an existing one. You can request fraud alerts yourself, but you must renew them several times a year, and they can fail if the creditors don?t make the call (as they are supposed to). Paying a company a small monthly fee to take care of the fraud alerts for you may be a good option, especially if the company offers you an identity theft guarantee.

Identity thieves are frequently aggressive and clever, and they like to target college students for reasons we've already touched on. But, a few simple precautions and a little common sense can go a long way in protecting you from them.

Article Source: http://www.articlegoldmine.com

Daniel Z. Kane is a university dean who advises students on online college degree programs and online degree programs.

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