There is a common fallacy that senior citizens are the most common victims of identity theft. While it’s true they make particularly lucrative targets, the age group with the most victims is that within the 18 to 39 brackets.
A subset of that group is college students, and that subgroup accounts for a great deal of the identity theft. Among the reasons the identities of college students are so frequently stolen:
Institutional policies: About half of all college students attend schools that use the students’ Social Security number as a student ID number.
Credit card offers: Roughly half of all college students receive at least one credit card offer in the mail each week; many receive them daily. Most college students say they just throw them away without shredding them. They’re also subjected to a barrage of credit card offers on campus, accompanied by offers of free T-shirts and gift cards.
Lifestyle: There are several elements of college life that make students especially vulnerable to identity theft, including; long holiday breaks with mail sitting uncollected; chaotic dorm life; living among strangers; inordinate sense of trust.
Experts recommend that parents talk to their kids about identity theft in the same way they talk to them about drug and alcohol usage, sexuality and safety practices like locking doors.
Each student should have a locking file cabinet and a shredder. They should be warned to avoid credit card offers, use online services to frequently monitor their accounts and review their credit reports regularly.
Whether you’re a college student yourself, or are just someone who’s concerned about a college student, visit LifeLock.com today to learn more about their identity theft protection services. Enroll using the LifeLock promotion code Defense and receive their comprehensive and innovation protection service for as little as $9 a month.
6 Comments
I remember what it was like in college. I had a box that sat under my desk that had all of my important papers in it. If anyone was to steal that box they would have more than enough information to steal my identity. Of course back them Identity theft wasn’t something that I had to worry about. Not so now a days. All my children have LifeLock now even the younger ones. It great knowing that they will never have to deal with an identity theft.
My son could be more careful with his information. I see his facebook profile and he has all kinds of information up there. I’m always telling him if someone ever wanted to find him all they would have to do is visit his facebook and they would know where to find him. Kind of creepy if you ask me.
I wonder if colleges have some kind of program that could protect them. I know they many colleges have programs that help protect the student while they are there; why not identity theft protection?
I’m not sure that would be the college’s responsibility. Most Colleges have enough to things to worry about and enough programs to support. Many colleges are seeing budget cuts already.
Maybe colleges could get a deal going with LifeLock to get a discount for their students. The Students would have to pay for it themselves but at least they could get a discount through the college.
I don’t know of any colleges that offer an identity theft benefit to their students. There are, however, a number of colleges that currently offer credit monitoring because of their data breaches.
Unfortunately, credit monitoring only alerts consumers after an identity thief has struck.