<p>Just a reminder that to protect against financial fraud, identity theft, etc. everyone, especially students, should pull their credit reports, which is free for everyone to do once a year. This allows review of applications for new credit, inquiries, etc. </p>
<p>Yesterday’s DHS Daily report highlights University of Kentucky:</p>
<p>University of Kentucky again releases private student
information. The Social Security numbers of about 710 University of Kentucky (UK) students
were accidentally released publicly in two separate incidents recently, school officials said
Tuesday, August 15. In one of the most recent incidents, the names and Social Security
numbers of 626 students were posted on UK’s financial−aid Website between Friday, August
11, and Monday, August 14, University spokesman Jay Blanton said. The second incident
occurred Monday afternoon when about 80 geography students were sent an e−mail about their
academic adviser. It inadvertently listed Social Security numbers, which are also used at UK as
student identification numbers, Blanton said.
Source: <a href=“http://www.courier−journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20[/url]”>http://www.courier−journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20</a>
060816/NEWS0104/608160535/1008/NEWS01</p>
<p>The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report does a very thorough job of reporting of leaks of personal information, bank phishing, and especially incidents at colleges, etc. - if you want to receive it in email, you can request it here:</p>
<p>O.K., now, there’s at least a zillion people who lurk or post here, and not a single person has responded “oh, thanks a LOT, LTS, you’re so right, I’ll drop what I’m doing right this minute, let the dinner burn on the stove, etc. and go run my free yearly credit reports right away”. </p>
<p>Identity theft is probably the fastest growing crime right now, and the avenues and tools available to law enforcement to combat it are very anemic in comparison to the huge losses of time and money. All a criminal needs is some basic information about you, and then it’s off to the shopping mall with new credit cards, etc. </p>
<p>It only takes five minutes on the computer to get your free credit reports from all three bureaus right on line, and if there are unauthorized events, you can see them and initiate investigations. </p>
<p>If your personal information has been compromised and your first warning is when bill collectors start calling, it’s often too late, and then it can take YEARS to untangle the mess and correct your credit records. </p>
<p>Five minutes invested now can potentially save lots of headaches later.</p>
<p>This is a terrific resource, LTS. I encourage everyone to look at the linik whether or not you decide to subscribe. Be sure to click on one of the daily links and read a report.</p>
<p>EDIT: Thanks, too, for the credit report advice.</p>
<p>About 8 years ago my youngest brother in law was getting ready to go to law school. He was going to need loans, so as a preemptive measure he checked his credit rating with ?TRW. All was fine, he got the loans, no drama.</p>
<p>My mother and father in law, realizing that they could too check their credit rating for free decided to do so, though they knew it would be spotless (it was). About 2 weeks later my mother-in-law had the first inklings of what ended up to be a complete identity theft. Ultimately, following thorough investigation, it was determined that it was an affiliate of the credit rating agency (someone they comissioned work to) who had accessed the information.</p>
<p>So, I’m not really sure that this is the optimal way to prevent identity theft, nor do I have reason to assume this is a rampant problem. Just one experience.</p>
<p>Marite, <a href=“http://www.annualcreditreport.com%5B/url%5D”>www.annualcreditreport.com</a> gets you to the registration page where you can request your reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. </p>
<p>The only thing I recommend is NOT to be tempted to pay the $7.95 or whatever each bureau will ask if you want your FICO score, reason being, the score they sell to you is not your “real” score anyway; it’s just an approximation. Besides your exact score doesn’t really matter much anyway unless you’re trying to buy something big. </p>
<p>But you’re entitled by law to one free report from each of the three credit reporting agencies every year, and I think some states even permit two per year. You will be able to check to make sure all of your accounts are reporting accurately, and that there have been no unauthorized hard inquiries on your report. </p>
<p>Anitaw, I can drill around and find stats later, but, identity theft issues in the aggregate cross my desk every day, and they’ve gotton worse in the last year. I think college students are at far greater risk - they are marketing targets for all sorts of credit granting entities; they get tons of offers in the mail; and their social security numbers are at extreme risk at being compromised, as the DHS report often shows. Plus, they’re harder for debt collectors to catch up with, so, often it can take a while for a student to find out that their personal information has been compromised. </p>
<p>Of course, checking credit reports only once a year only examines credit positon for that exact period, and provides no help at all for the next 364 days. But it’s better than doing nothing, and people can protect themselves by being very cautious about who gets access to their personal information. </p>
<p>The other option is to subscribe to credit report monitoring services, which can work very well.</p>
<p>Because you can get one free report per year from each of the big 3 companies, the best thing to do is stagger them --and request a report from a different company every 4 months. It would be worthwhile to calendar this as a reminder — i.e. Sept. 1, check Equifax; January 1, check Experian; May 1 check TransUnion. </p>
<p>They will try to sell you on extra services, which I don’t think is worthwhile unless you have a particular reason to need them – so for example if you have reason to worry about potential identity theft, such as if your computer was stolen – it might be worthwhile to sign up for a credit monitoring service. Otherwise, periodic checking should be fine.</p>
<p>Good idea, Calmom, I never thought of that. </p>
<p>A student posted on the financial aid board that someone ran up $800 in comcast cable charges using his identity, and it’s on his credit report. </p>
<p>While unfortunate, this is actually pretty minor compared to what some frausters can do…</p>