Last summer, Dan Daitchman, a senior in the College of Business Administration, was a victim of identity theft. After his 21st birthday celebration at a local establishment, he realized his debit card had been stolen. Daitchman was lucky that there were no further repercussions, but identity theft is a growing crime in the United States, one that college students frequently fall victim to.
According to the State of Wisconsin Department of Justice, identity theft increased 5.1 percent in 2005 in the state and it is the No. 1 complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. The people affected by it the most are the 18 to 29 age group, which includes college students. College students may be more vulnerable to identity theft because they are more likely to be careless with important documents, they get lots of credit card offers that carry important information about them and they are overall easier targets.
Daitchman said he had been a victim of identity theft before, and with far worse consequences, when he studied abroad in Europe. While on a trip in Spain he used an ATM in Madrid where apparently there had been a camera that recorded the pin numbers of ATM users. Daitchman tried to use his debit card two weeks later and his balance was negative. Someone had stolen a massive amount of money, $600 at a time, without him realizing it happened.
"I was in Europe and I was being a victim of fraud," Daitchman said.
He then called his bank and was able to resolve the problem after a couple of weeks and some paperwork. He was lucky enough that his bank was able to find the money and that nothing more than his money was stolen.
The Department of Justice warns that identity thieves can find personal information by searching garbage for un-shredded documents, through mail theft, submissions of change of address forms, eavesdropping and from the theft of personal items, like a wallet or purse.
Identity thieves wish to obtain peoples' information to open credit card accounts, commit bank fraud, evade citation or criminal record and enter the United States illegally.
People may not find out if they have been victims of identity theft until it is too late. According to Call For Action, a network that is dedicated to educating people about identity theft, people may become victims if their monthly credit card and bank statements suddenly stop arriving, if they starts getting bills from companies they were never associated with and if credit companies try collecting money that they never spent.
"Students should eliminate the amount of credit card offers they carry, go to optoutprescreen.com to get rid of junk mail that may carry personal information about themselves and beware of false organizations that try to get personal information over the Internet," said Public Safety Sergeant Katie Berrigan.
Identity theft has also grown in part due to "phishing," or "pharming," an online scam that can steal information from consumers through what may appear as legitimate operations.
"There are many online sources that e-mail people asking for their personal information or further information as if they had previously subscribed with the site, and seem real because they have real logos of credit card companies or other standing businesses," Berrigan said.
Some more tips to prevent identity theft are to shred all documents before throwing them out, and identifying information should not be given over the phone, or the Internet if the person is unknown. For further information visit www.callforaction.org.