Protect Your Identity From Thieves
By Kelvin E. Boston
Host, Moneywise PBS Series
Think you know who you are? You'll start to wonder, once someone else assumes your identity, utilizing personal information retrieved from your trash, your computer or from information you unwittingly provided over the internet or in person. The thief will live a life you never knew you had using your name and personal identifying information. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing consumer crimes in the country costing victims over $5 billion a year, according to the Inspector General's office of the U.S. Department of Education. Last year, an estimated 9.9 million consumers were victims of identity theft.
The identity thief uses your name and identifying information to fraudulently obtain all kinds of consumer goodies like cell phones, credit cards, even car and mortgage loans, leaving you holding the bag of consequences. It could take months or even years to clear up the damage caused to your reputation and credit. Clearing up the fraud could also cost you thousands of dollars.
Easy targets are college students who naively file or discard filled-out financial aid forms and credit card offers. Even allowing your social security number to be used alongside or instead of your name for posting grades at school is high risk.
The identity theft problem is so bad among students that the Department of Education launched a website www.ed.gov/MISUSED to help students who think they have been victimized.
A recent national survey of college students by the department of education found that:
- Almost half of all college students receive credit card applications on a daily or weekly basis and many of these students throw away the applications without destroying them.
- Nearly a third of students rarely, if ever, reconcile their credit card and checking account balances.
- Almost 50 percent of students have had grades posted by Social Security number.
To keep your information safe and protect your identity and financial future,
the Department of Education and the Federal Trade Commission make the following
recommendations:
- Sign your credit cards immediately.
- Do not carry your social security card with you.
- Do not attach or write a PIN number or social security number on anything you are going to discard.
- Carry only the cards (credit and ID) that you need to have with you; file others in a safe place at home.
- Shred any document that contains your credit card number before you discard it.
- Check receipts to ensure you received your own and not someone else's.
- Alert your card issuer if you do not receive your statements. Someone could have taken them from your mailbox and could be using your credit card number.
- Do not give personal information or account numbers to anyone until you have confirmed the identity of the person requesting the information and verified that you need to provide them with the information.
- Change your PIN and password at least once a year.
- Report all lost or stolen identification immediately.
- Use caution when using commercial financial aid services over the Internet or telephone. U.S. Department of Education services are free and password-protected.
- Apply for federal student aid at www.fafsa.ed.gov. After completing the application electronically, remember to exit the application and close the browser.
Internet Safety
- Update your virus protection software regularly, or when a new virus alert is announced. Computer viruses can have a variety of damaging effects, including introducing program code that causes your computer to send out files or other stored information.
- Be on the alert for security repairs and patches that you can download from your operating system's Web site.
- Do not download files sent to you by strangers or click on hyperlinks from people you don't know. Opening a file could expose your system to a computer virus or a program that could hijack your modem.
- Use a firewall program, especially if you use a high-speed Internet connection like cable, DSL or T-1, which leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. The firewall program will allow you to stop uninvited guests from accessing your computer.
- Use a secure browser - software that encrypts or scrambles information you send over the Internet - to guard the security of your online transactions. Be sure your browser has the most up-to-date encryption capabilities by using the latest version available from the manufacturer. When submitting information, look for the "lock" icon on the browser's status bar to be sure your information is secure during transmission.
- Before you dispose of a computer, delete personal information. Use a "wipe" utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive. It makes the files unrecoverable.
If you believe you may be a victim of identity fraud the Federal Trade Commission
(www.consumer.gov/idtheft)
makes the following four recommendations.
- Contact the fraud department of any one of the three major credit bureaus
to place a fraud alert on your credit file. This alert asks creditors to contact
you before opening any new accounts or making changes to your existing accounts.
As soon as the credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the other two credit
bureaus will be automatically notified to place fraud alerts and all three
credit reports will be sent to you free of charge.
- Close the accounts you know or believe have been compromised. Use the ID
Theft Affidavit when disputing new unauthorized accounts.
- File a police report. Get a copy of the report and submit to your creditors
and others who may require proof of the crime.
- File your complaint with the FTC. The FTC maintains a database of identity theft cases used by law enforcement agencies for investigations.
Be vigilant about keeping your identity to yourself and safeguard your financial future.
