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The Battalion
Page 3 A • Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Experts weigh in on a student’s susceptibility to identity theft and fraud
By Kim Katopodis
THE BATTALION
In anticipation of her December graduation, a student has
begun to clean out her desk. Papers begin to Fill the room. She
begins to get so overwhelmed by all of it that she just throws it
into a box. Receipts, old advising forms, expired health insurance
cards; surely she no longer has any use for these things anymore.
That night she tosses the box out with the rest of her garbage.
Tomorrow is trash day.
This is something any student could do, not
realizing how much personal information he
will have left on his curb for anyone to
take.
Advising forms have Social
Security numbers on them, receipts
often contain a full credit card num
ber and insurance cards usually j
contain a person’s Social Security
number.
With this information, anyone
can open a new bank account, line
of credit or get a cellular phone in
your name.
The Federal Trade Commission
defines identity theft as using
someone else’s personal informa
tion, such as name, address.
Social Security number or date of
birth illegally.
According to the FTC, identity
theft is the fastest-growing white
collar crime in America. Texas is
ranked fifth in the nation for total
cases of identity theft.
Students are especially vulnerable
to identity theft because they throw
away credit card offers and receipts
without a second thought, their Social
Security numbers are used all over campus and they usually
don’t check their bank statements for unauthorized charges.
Social Security numbers are used by students daily. At Texas
A&M, a student’s Social Security number often doubles as his
student identification number.
Social Security numbers were issued in 1936. The
number was originally intended for use only as a
means of identification for Social Security programs.
The number is now used as a catch-all for virtually all
identification purposes.
“At most colleges, the Social Security
number is the universal identifier, and
it was never meant to be that
way,” said Mary Ann Arnet, ?
vice president of Chubb
and Son, a national
property insurance
corporation.
Identity theft is
a crime that
affected 27.3
million people in
the United States
in 2002. The
crime is fairly
easy to commit and
the perpetrator is rarely
convicted.
“A lot of times it doesn’t get reported,” said Stephanie George
an information services manager at the College Station Police
Department.
One of the main problems in detaining and convicting identity
theft perpetrators is jurisdiction, said CSPD Det. Michael Pavelka
If a person uses a victim’s identity outside of the state the crime
is reported in, the victim’s state has no jurisdiction to try the
identity thief, said state Rep. Mark Gundrum, chair of the
Assembly Judiciary Committee’s task force on identity theft.
If it could happen to...
STEUfn SPIELBERG
Steuen Spielberg’s name and credit
history mere used by Rbraham Abdal
lah, a dishuiasher-in-training (it’s
true), to scam credit card companies
and get loans in his name. Abdallah’s
other uictims include George Lucas,
Oprah UJinfrey and Ross Perot.
4566 8346 12030 56902
This problem is especially relevant in the emergence of
Internet banking and shopping. Many identity thieves use
credit card numbers to gain access to Web sites or to buy prod
ucts online, Pavelka said. This process is easy and hard to
track, he said.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 20 percent of
all reported cases involve telecommunications or the Internet.
Several laws are currently being considered by the U.S.
Senate. Most notable of these is a bill sponsored by Sen.
Dianne Feinstein.
According
Newsweek,
Feinstein bill
mandate that
to
the
would
com-
Social
identifying
panics get consent
before releasing
personal infor
mation, require
the truncation
of credit card
numbers on all
credit slips and
receipts and prohib
it the display of
Security numbers on
cards and documents.
While this legislation could help prevent
identity theft, students must be proactive in protecting themselves,
Pavelka said.
Pavelka suggests that consumers review credit card state
ments monthly. Shredding charge slips, sensitive material,
information and documents can also help prevent “dumpster
divers” from obtaining someone’s personal information.
It is also important to check credit reports annually. The
three major credit reporting agencies are TransUnion, Experian
and Equifax, Pavelka said.
If it could happen to...
If it could happen to
mu south
Will Smith’s credit card was charged
more than $30,000 when Carol
Lomax opened more than 14 credit
cards in his name. Lomax pulled the
same scam on Atlanta Jayhawhs
basketball player Steue Smith and
another unnamed celebrity.
0126 4536 96200 01290
TIGER WOODS
Anthony Lemar Taylor stole Tiger
Woods’ identity in 2001 and was sen
tenced under California’s “three
strikes law” to 200 years in prison.
Taylor is one of the few identity theft
perpetrators to be tried and conuicted.
0123 1231 95450 23230
Identity theft does not care who its victim is.
The crime is colorblind and is found equally in
all classes, races, and ages, Pavelka said.
Seven million people were victims of identi
ty theft last year, according to the Identity
Theft Resource Center. Of these cases, 16 per
cent of victims reported that their perpetrator
was someone they knew — a co-worker, friend
or family member.
Pavelka said he has seen cases in College
Station in which people used their roommates’
personal information to obtain phones and other
services without their permission.
Protecting personal information is the first
step in avoiding what Michelle Brown, a victim
who testified before the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee, experienced.
“Identity fraud... leaves a very dark and filthy cloud
around the victim. Although I am ... living what may on
the surface seem to be a normal life with freedom on the
streets,” she said.
“I have never deserved less than that: a normal life, one
free of the ill effects of a heinous individual who deliberate
ly and unabashedly used and abused my world
that I had always been so careful to create
and maintain.”
Graphics by Seth Freeman • THE BATTALION
INFOGRAPHICS BY RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
LIOH
lief
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reity holidays and exam p»f
840. POSTMASTER: Send 0
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Ways to protect yourself from identity theft:
Put passwords on your credit cards,
bank and phone accounts. Avoid using
easily available information such as your
mother’s maiden name, your birthday, the
last four digits of your Social Security number
or other obvious choices.
Keep items with personal information in a safe place.
When you discard receipts, credit applications,
insurance forms, blank checks and statements, tear or
shred them. This will help thwart an identity thief who may
pick through your trash or recycling bins to obtain your
personal information.
Minimize the identification
information and the number of
cards you carry to what you’ll
actually need. Don’t put all of your
identifying information in one holder
in your purse or backpack.
Use a secure browser when shopping
online to guard the security of your
transactions. Look for the “lock” icon on
the browser’s status bar to be sure your
information is secure during transmission.
Source: Federal Trade Commission