Keeping Your Identity Safe

In the technological world we live in, identity theft and fraud have become areas of increased concern for people of all ages.
ISU Credit Union Marketing Manager Rick Cheatum said though he doesn’t see a lot of it, college students can become victims of identity theft and fraud because they are a “naïve credit set,” making them easy targets. He said the only thing that really sets students apart from everyone else is experience with protecting information.
“Typically they don’t have a credit score you can build on, they don’t have a lot of money in the bank, they don’t have a lot of savings, checking, whatever it might be there aren’t a lot of assets to steal,” said Cheatum. “But if you’re creating a whole new ID a student would be a good place to go.”
Cheatum said as technology has advanced, so have security measures attempting to thwart identity theft and fraud.
“As the world has become more connected, there are more people out there trying to make an easy living and this is one way of doing it. It’s just sad that those people don’t put that incredible effort into honest endeavors,” said Cheatum. “There’s some real geniuses out there. As we invent better mousetraps, they just invent better mice. It just keeps happening, and I don’t know how you stop this from happening but you just have to look out for yourself.”
Identity theft and fraud can cost a lot of time and money to rectify, according to Cheatum, especially if it goes undetected for long. He said prevention is key.
The most important prevention advice Cheatum said he could provide for students is to check their credit.
“If there’s a problem, it will most likely show up [on your credit report] and then you can fix it,” said Cheatum.
Cheatum recommends students log on to www.AnnualCreditReport.com to check their credit. Cheatum explained there are three major credit reporting agencies Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, and every individual is entitled to a free credit report from each of the agencies every 12 months.
Cheatum also said students need to track their account balances down to the dollar in order to detect unsolicited use of their funds.
“If [a criminal] gets ahold of an account, a lot of times they’ll use it for a very small amount, maybe even just a dollar, to see if it’s a real account,” explained Cheatum. “The next time they hit it, they’ll hit it for big money. If you watch your accounts, you can catch that small amount before they hit it a second time for big money.”
Cheatum said if there is a problem or if you suspect a problem, it is vital to contact your financial institution as soon as possible to prevent further losses. Closing the breached account and opening a new account may be a likely course of action.
“You need to be aware of what forms of ID were taken, whether they’ve ripped off your checking account, a debit card, maybe a credit card or whatever access it is that they’re using,” said Cheatum. “Maybe they’ve gotten your ID and they’ve opened a whole new account with somebody new, that’s where you can catch it on your credit report.”
Cheatum also emphasized using secure passphrases instead of passwords on all accounts containing sensitive information. Passphrases are a set of characters and numbers that represent a phrase and are not a real word.
“You don’t want a password that a computer can run through and guess or solve with an algorithm,” said Cheatum.
Another problem students run into, according to Cheatum, is being careless with personal information.
“You’ve got to protect your personal non-public information,” said Cheatum. “Your address and your phone number, that’s not a big deal. That’s available through the phonebook but you can’t get your social security number there, your birthdate.”
He used the examples of leaving paperwork with social security numbers or other identifying information laying around, carrying your social security card or even keeping your birthdate viewable on your Facebook account.
“The worst thing you can do is publish your birthday on Facebook,” said Cheatum. “So everybody’s wishing you ‘Happy Birthday’ but that’s part of your identifying information used to steal your identity.”
Cheatum said algorithms for information used by credit companies and banks to open accounts have improved. If your information doesn’t line-up when you try to open an account, it triggers an alert.
“Somebody’s gotta be pretty doggone clever if they go that route to make it work,” said Cheatum.
A key thing for students to remember is their financial institution should never ask for their account number.
“We already have that information,” said Cheatum.
If you receive a call or message claiming to be your financial institution needing your account number for any reason, you should not give it to them. Contact them via contact information you have, not the information given in the call or message, and verify that the situation is legitimate.
Cheatum recommended staying on the phone line when you receive a call such as this in order to “tie up the line,” as most of these operations are automated and the calling party cannot hang up.
“This way, you prevent them from calling someone else and you may be able to contact the authorities to have them track the call,” said Cheatum.
Cheatum warned that many of these operations come from out of country and there aren’t often many legal repercussions that can be taken against them.