College Students Beware: Identity Thieves Want You!

Jay, an entering the postdoctoral program at a prominent Dental School needed financial help so he applied for a Sallie Mae loan with no qualms about his credit. However, a few days later, Jay received a phone call from a Sallie Mae loan officer asking why Jay felt he would be eligible for financial aid when his credit report has a delinquent list a mile long. When Jay saw his report listing charge cards had never owned he was shocked and confused. His dream quickly turned into a nightmare that has lasted almost two years.

"I felt violated and angry." Jay said. He had planned to start his residency in the fall of 2004, but his life came to a halt when he couldn't borrow money or find funding to begin the dental program.

As Jay ran down the list of his creditors on the report, he found one charge card that had been opened in 1976; Jay was born in 1978. Jay began calling credit companies and stores expecting to clear up his financial matters within a few days. He was wrong.

"Credit card companies don't care." Jay said. "And the police don't show much interest." That's when Jay realized he had to do his own investigation.

Some educational institutions have already switched to using student identity numbers in effort to protect students from identity theft issues; however, because university computer systems are a wealth of information for identity thieves, colleges and universities using student's social security numbers for loan information, ID cards, and posting grades. etc. need to come up with a new method for identifying students.

Compared to a Social Security number, UPI and SID numbers themselves cannot provide access to personal information and are meaningless outside of the University if stolen, Yale Chief Information Officer Philip Long said in an interview with Yale Daily News. "While the UPI number will be used mainly for payroll, parking, gym access and swiping at the dining hall, the SID number is mainly used to access academic records, request transcripts and make transactions within the Student Information System."*

Unfortunately, the fight against identity fraud is still a growing program in universities as well as all over the country.

"And it is so easy'' Betty "BJ" Ostergren, the self-proclaimed Virginia Watchdog said during a recent demonstration for CNN to show how easy it is to find information online. "They have no clue, people," she said, pulling up a random divorce record that shows, among other things, a father's Social Security number and his former employer, the U.S. Air Force.**

It has been two years since college student, Jay, had his identity was stolen, but on a positive note, he graduated from the Pediatric Dentistry program in June and has joined a dental group in Arizona. He is still working on cleaning up his damaged credit report and has chosen the Netspend card for making his purchases. He warns others that clearing your name is almost like a full-time job by the time you do the research, write letters, and make phone calls to collection agencies.

Don't become a statistic. Learn more about protecting yourself from being a victim of identity theft.

Ten ways to protect yourself from identity theft: moneycentral.msn.com

For a free credit report: https://www.annualcreditreport.com

FCRA: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra.htm

FDCPA http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm

Debtors Rights Primer: http://www.pennlawyer.com/fdcpa.htm

Sources:

* Yale Daily News

** CNN News