College Students at Risk
Communal living that makes personal information easily accessible, Universities that use social security numbers for identifying students and increasing number of credit card offers are just a few of the many ways students are being put at risk for identity theft.
Students assume that they don’t have anything to steal because they don’t have any money. But, identity thieves aren’t always after money. Since college students generally have no more than one credit card and a student loan or two, yet they are prime targets for identity theft because they have clean records. And, on top of that, their identities are usually pretty easy to steal.
Students are an easy mark for a number of reasons
• They’ve got favorable credit histories
• They give out Social Security numbers often – whether for school IDs, new credit card applications or rental applications
• Their personal information is easily accessible in high-traffic dorms
• They tend to post personal information on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook
• They often access unsecured Wi-Fi networks, leaving them susceptible to file stealing
• They’re not terribly concerned about Identity theft. What, me worry?
What Can You Do to Protect Your College Student?
If you know a student who is preparing to head back to college in the fall or going off for the first time, here are five tips to help him or her set up some safeguards.
1. Outfit his or her dorm room or apartment with a paper shredder. Statistics prove that college students throw out all junk mail in exactly the same form it came in. Most don’t even open envelopes of pre-approved credit card offers. In some cases, college students throw out their student loan documentation or correspondences from the university containing social security numbers and other personal information without destroying it first. Dumpster diving identity thieves target dumpsters behind college dorm rooms or near campus mail facilities. Help the college student in your life greatly reduce his or her risk of identity theft by purchasing a shredder and explaining why it’s important to use it. You might even suggest a regular shredding party!
2. Teach your student the importance of reconciling his or her bank statement each month. With all the online banking that students are doing, they don’t realize the need to reconcile their bank statements each month. As a result, identity thieves have a greater chance of getting away with a crime on an existing account without ever being detected. This could create significant problems for students who keep just enough money in their bank accounts to survive. If even $50 was stolen from a bank account, and a student isn’t aware of it, an overdraft of available funds may occur resulting in fines and late fees on bills that were actually paid on time. Reconciling your bank statement and your checkbook every month is one of the easiest ways to spot existing account fraud and stop identity thieves. Remind your student that it’s not his or her own transactions that really need to be monitored as much as it is fraudulent activity that may go unnoticed. Also, it’s a great way to help them maintain their basic math skills!
3. Contact the university and ask them not to use your student’s social security number to identify your student or to post grades. With identity theft so prevalent these days, many universities are switching to systems that generate completely random identification numbers for student ID cards, but many universities still employ the age old practice of using student social security numbers to post grades and test scores. If this is the current practice at the university your student will attend contact the university and request that a different number be assigned to your student. Explaining the reason why you don’t want them to use the social security number might help them eventually change the school policy.
4. Consider purchasing a stolen identity coverage product, NOT just a monitoring service. Because some things about protecting your student’s identity are beyond your control (for example, will he or she even follow your suggestions) purchasing a product such stolen identity coverage is a worthwhile investment. The problem with identity theft is that, unlike a home invasion, identity theft happens silently and for the most part, invisibly. However, the damage can be just as costly and take months to clear up. And while alarms may tell you something has happened, they will be too late if your student’s identity is stolen!
5. Install security software on your student’s computer and teach him or her to use strong passwords. Most college students experience some form of communal living whether in dorm rooms or apartments shared with roommates, so it is important that your student’s computer (especially if it is a laptop) be equipped with additional security features to prevent friends or roommates from accessing your student’s personal information when he or she isn’t around. Even if your student trusts his or her roommates, a roommate’s friends may not be so trustworthy. Statistics prove that many victims of identity theft are at least casually acquainted with the thief. Teach your student the importance of creating strong alphanumeric passwords, and changing them frequently. Stress that passwords become pointless if they are shared with other people. Make sure your student also has security software that will protect his or her computer from viruses spread through email. Remember that being proactive and taking all identity theft prevention will safeguard the personal information and help protect against any fraud.
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Acxiom is one of the world's most sophisticated companies. Its massive computers keep track of more than 10 billion pieces of information, most of it marketing data designed to keep track of you. The firm claims it "engages" 375 million consumers around the world every month.
But the company is entirely old fashioned when it comes to letting consumers opt out of its huge database of personal information. To do so, they must visit the firm's Web site and fill out a Web form. Acxiom will then mail a paper “opt-out form,” which consumers must then fill out and mail back.
"It's ridiculous to think that in this era these companies require a letter for this," says Pam Dixon, director of the World Privacy Forum, which sent a formal letter of complaint (PDF) to the Federal Trade Commission this week. "If you ask any consumer why a Web site would ask for a letter, they would say the paper opt out is there because the company is trying to discourage (consumers) from doing it."
Acxiom did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.
Arkansas-based Acxiom isn't the only company in the organization's cross-hairs. The World Privacy Forum, a California-based, nonprofit advocacy group, also named online data brokers US Search, USA People Search and PublicRecordsNow in its complaint.
"In an age of Twitter and Web 2.0, requiring people to mail in their opt outs imposes a burden for consumers that is simply not necessary," Dixon said.
At US Search, consumers are presented with a Web form, but they are told to fill it out, print it out, and then mail it to the company.
"Please note that if you do not follow these instructions exactly, we will not be able to honor your opt-out request," the site says. "Enter your information in the fields below. You should include every address where you’ve lived or received mail over the past 10 years."
Stefanie Rubin, spokeswoman for US Search, said many of the Privacy’s Forum’s claims were “incorrect.”
“For example, the US Search opt-out process does offer a means to expedite opt-out requests for peace officers, and stalking and ID theft victims,” she wrote in an e-mail to msnbc.com. “Moreover, the report does not adequately appreciate the challenges around authenticating opt-out requests in an online environment. We hope to begin a dialogue with the World Privacy Forum on these issues in the near future.”
At ChoicePoint, opting out is easier
Not all companies require a paper trail. Georgia-based Data broker ChoicePoint allows customers to opt out via a simple Web form. So does the Direct Marketing Association.
"If ChoicePoint can do it, these other companies can do it," Dixon said.
In the complaint letter to the FTC, the privacy organization argued that the commission has established a standard for Web site opt-outs and that requiring paper letters doesn't meet it.
It bases that claim on standards the FTC published in 2007 concerning consumers who try to opt out of databases that fall under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act.
In its Affiliate Marketing rule, the FTC stated that “reasonable and simple methods for exercising an opt-out right do not include:
• Requiring the consumer to write his or her own letter;
• Requiring the consumer to call or write to obtain a form for opting out, rather than including the form with the opt-out notice;
• Requiring the consumer who receives the opt-out notice in electronic form only, such as through posting at an Internet Web site, to opt out solely by paper mail or by visiting a different Web site without providing a link to that site.
The rule is designed for data brokers that sell credit reports, such as ChoicePoint or credit reporting agency Trans Union, and may not cover other kinds of data brokers that don’t sell reports used to make credit-related decisions. The privacy group is asking the FTC to issue a statement that would explicitly declare that the rule applies to any data broker, and to declare mail-in opt-out requirements "unfair and unlawful."
Claudia Bourne-Farrell, an FTC spokeswoman, said the agency had received the letter it was “taking their concerns under advisement.”
There are important reasons that consumers might want to remove information from such databases, Dixon said. Victims of stalking and law enforcement officials have a need to keep their personal information away from antagonists, for example. In its letter, the Privacy Forum cites consumer complaints it obtained from the FTC under the Freedom of Information Act to make this point.
“I am a detective for the (removed) police department, and as you can probably guess I don’t want the criminals that I have put away having such easy access to my personal information,” wrote one.
A victim of stalking wrote to the asking for “immediate help" expunging the public databases.
Dixon said her group discovered the burdensome letter-writing process while preparing a popular new feature for the agency's Web site, a "Top 10 Opt Out" page. The list includes recipes for removing information from telemarketing lists, junk mail lists, financial firm information sharing and others.
Link: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/04/acxiom-is-one-o.html
Source: redtape.msnbc.com
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Some critics of recently reappointed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke argue that he was too slow to realize that the financial system was teetering on the brink of collapse during 2008. But Bernanke might have had another, more personal banking issue on his mind at the time, Newsweek reports: his wife Anna's purse was stolen in August 2008, and the thieves used its contents to access the couple's joint checking account.
A court affadavit filed in June shows that 10 people are charged in the fraud, which used the Bernankes' bank account to inflate the value of other accounts that then had money withdrawn from them. The 22-page document identifies a victim known as "B. B.," who had $900 stolen from his account, but another complaint against one of the alleged members of the ring used Ben Bernanke's full name.
The thefts affected more than 500 people in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, where the ring operated. Anna Bernanke reported that her purse was stolen from a D.C.-area Starbucks (SBUX) coffee shop.
The Bernankes are hardly alone in their conundrum, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, which estimates that identity theft costs consumers and businesses more than $55 billion annually. Some 650,000 complaints of identity theft are registered annually, another source reports. Concerns about the crime have dramatically increased in recent years, as the amount of personal information stored online -- and vulnerable to hackers or security breaches -- has grown with online commerce.
The ringleader of the thefts was a 52-year old Maryland man, Clyde Austin Gray Jr., who has pleaded guilty in the scheme, which cost 10 banks $2.1 million. And as Bernanke would know, that's money the banks can ill afford to see walk out the front door.
But here's a question: Why would Bernanke -- who, as Fed Chairman, could be given extraordinary regulatory powers in the coming months and years -- have his account at Wachovia? Before it was saved by Wells Fargo (WFC), Wachovia was the bank that picked the top of the housing bubble to make a terrible acquisition, then tried to maintain a façade of solvency by under-provisioning for loan losses.
Let's hope it had more to do with his confidence in the FDIC guarantee than a lack of understanding about what was going on under the hood of Wachovia's pick-a-pay portfolio.
James Cullen edits and writes at CollegeAnalysts.com. He has no personal position in the stocks mentioned above.
Link: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/26/bernankes-other-banking-problem-identity-theft/
Source: www.DailyFinance.com
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With the ink barely dry on headlines about what could be the biggest security breach in history (identity thieves hacked into payment processor Heartland Payment Services, possibly gaining access to the credit-card information of millions of consumers) signing up for a credit-monitoring service may have jumped a few notches on your to-do list.
After all, paying $12 or so a month seems like a small price to pay for the peace of mind that -- through regular alerts about activity on your credit reports and other monitoring services -- you'll be protected from identity theft. Right? Think again.
“For most consumers, these services are a waste of money,” says Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer information organization in San Diego. They don’t do anything that consumers can’t do themselves, are laden with loopholes and, in some cases, use questionable marketing methods to get consumers to sign on.
Nevertheless, the credit-monitoring business is booming. Last year, 33 million people, or 22% of the U.S. adult population, used such services, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, a financial-services research firm. And the firm expects the market to grow at double-digit rates over the next several years.
Consumers, however, need to understand what it is they're actually buying.
1. These services cost almost nothing to deliver
“Credit monitoring has almost zero marginal cost to the bureaus, yet they sell it for $150 a year or more,” says Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups. Credit reports are compiled automatically and accessed online, while alerts are sent via email -- hardly justifying that $7 to $15 monthly tab.
Experian spokeswoman Maxine Sweet says the company does not disclose the cost to provide its service. Steven Katz, a spokesman for TransUnion, said in a written statement that “there are very real costs associated with delivering our services.” Equifax did not return our request for comment.
2. They don't protect you from identity theft
They promise to “guard your identity” or even offer “advanced identity theft protection," but the truth is, most credit-monitoring products cannot protect you against identity theft. Some services -- especially the cheaper ones -- only offer credit reports from just one of the three credit bureaus. If a lender pulls your report from one of the other two, you won’t find out about it until the credit line is open. “By the time you get the alert, the damage has been done,” Stephens says. And even if you track all three credit reports, say through a service like Experian's Triple Advantage, you still have to be vigilant and call the creditor if there is any suspicious activity. The services won't do it for you.
In response, Sweet says Experian’s credit-monitoring service provides “peace of mind” and should not be counted on to prevent identity theft alone. TransUnion's Katz says credit monitoring isn’t just an identity theft protection tool. “Critics who choose to view credit monitoring as primarily an identity theft deterrent are missing the point,” Katz wrote in an email. “It is first and foremost a tool that can empower consumers to proactively manage their overall credit health.”
3. Victim of identity theft? You won't get all of your money back
Identity theft insurance is included in many credit-monitoring services or even sold by some firms as a standalone product. This insurance promises to reimburse monetary damages if a consumer falls prey to identity theft. However, in almost all cases, victims only get reimbursed for costs incurred while cleaning up their credit. “There is absolutely no policy that exists today that says you’ll get the money a thief took from your bank account back,” says Frank Abagnale, the once con-man turned security expert whose story was told in the movie "Catch Me If You Can." “What kind of money am I going to spend fixing my credit? A couple phone calls and $100 for FedEx?” he asks. “It’s a scam.” (Interestingly enough, Abagnale notes that in 1996 he helped develop Privacy Guard, a credit-monitoring service that also offers identity theft insurance.)
4. You may not even know you’ve signed up
Many consumers unknowingly sign up for a credit-monitoring service while activating a credit card or after cashing what they believe is a rewards check from their credit-card issuer. Last July, Trilegiant Corporation, which owns Privacy Guard and Credit Alert, paid a $25 million settlement for a class-action lawsuit alleging the company collected unauthorized charges from consumers for services they never requested or agreed to receive, according to the Lakin Law Firm, which represented consumers in the lawsuit. Trilegiant did not return our calls seeking comment.
Another sneaky sign-up tactic to watch out for: Sites like the widely-advertised FreeCreditReport.com. Consumers looking to get a free credit report through this service may not realize they’re subscribing to Experian’s credit-monitoring product and will be charged $14.95 a month for the service.
Link: http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Rip-offs/Credit-Monitoring-Services-A-False-Sense-of-Security/
Source: SmartMoney.com
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More than 8 million identity thefts have occurred in recent years, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Are you at risk for becoming a victim?
How does this crime happen? Thieves steal wallets, steal or open your mail, go through your trash, steal information from where you work or do business or complete a change of address form to divert your mail.
Link: http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20081102/ARTICLES/810300195/1008?Title=Do_you_know_how_not_to_become_a_victim_of_identity_theft_
Source: The Daily Comet
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