Helping Your Students Avoid Identity Theft

Piper Lutbak

Along with keeping your students informed about policies on campus life and the various ways to pay for their education, students should be made aware of the dangers of identity theft, how to protect themselves and their personal information, and what to do if they think they have become victims of identity theft.

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information, such as your social security number, without your permission, to obtain credit, commit fraud or other crimes.

Though many students understand what identity theft is, they may not be aware of just how susceptible they are to this kind of crime. They become a possible victim each and every time they go online, especially on social networks, and/or share their personal information with their friends.

Help Them Protect Themselves

When discussing identity theft with your students, you can help them protect themselves by sharing a list of ways they can mitigate their chances of becoming victims. Students should:

Make sure they keep their personal information in a safe place, where only they have access;
Not share their personal information with others who contact them via phone, mail, or the internet unless they are sure they know who they are dealing with;
Protect their computers by using firewalls, anti-spyware, and anti-virus software and, when choosing a password, select something that is not obvious; don't use your date of birth or your mother’s maiden name;
Only open e-mails from familiar sources and do not click on links sent in unsolicited emails; and
Remember to shred financial documents and personal information before disposing of them.

Even if your students adhere to all of the habits above, they still may become the victims of identity theft. Someone may obtain their personal information and try and take out credit in their name. Your student may not become aware of this until it is too late. That is why it is good to get them in the habit of reviewing their credit reports yearly and paying attention to calls or letters about purchases they did not make.

Steps to Take if They Have Become a Victim

If a student feels that they have become a victim of identity theft, advise them to take the following steps:

Notify the company that holds the account;
File a police report;
Contact Equifax: 1-800-525-6285, Experian: 1-888-397-3742 and TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289 to place a free “Fraud Alert” on their credit reports, and request a credit report from each company to review for accounts that they did not open;
Report the theft to the Federal Trade Commission.

Over the last few years the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs (NCHELP) has been working with the Federal Trade Commission on its national identity theft campaign, “Avoid Theft: Deter, Detect, Defend.” To assist you in presenting this material to your students, HESC has incorporated the information into Module 3, “Avoiding Identity Theft,” of its Financial Awareness and Consumer Training for Students (FACTS) program.

Visit HESC.org for the following educational materials:

If you would like a HESC trainer present this information or any of the FACTS modules to your students, please contact Pam Jerome at pjerome@hesc.org.