It was only a few years ago that Rebecca Soll and her family
went through an ordeal that they said they wish never happened.
“He knew where we lived … it was really creepy,”
the fourth-year political science and history student said.
The Solls would get messages from delivery people confirming
that packages had been shipped to their house ““ packages they
had never ordered.
“He would have packages delivered to our house; he would
come by at night and get them,” she continued.
Soll’s father was a victim of identity theft. Because her
father’s address was linked to his credit card, fraudulent
purchases with the card would be shipped to the Soll home.
Eventually, a police report was filed, and her father cut off
the account.
Soll’s father is only one of many Americans who have faced
identity theft, which has increased over the past couple years.
Identity theft has become an important issue in the United
States. It is one of the fastest growing crimes in America,
according to the California Attorney General’s office.
Individuals can nevertheless take action to protect their
identities.
The Federal Trade Commission received over 635,000 complaints of
identity theft and fraud from January to December 2004. Of these
complaints, 39 percent were identity theft and 61 percent were
fraud, which includes catalog sales, Internet services and foreign
money offers. The amount of losses from these complaints totaled
more than $547 million.
The UCLA community has worked to minimize identity theft, and
there are many ways students can take it upon themselves to protect
their identity and their money.
“It’s important to always talk about it. … It
affects students and non-students alike,” said Scott Stane,
vice-president of marketing at University Credit Union.
Identity theft is now particularly important to students as they
begin to have greater financial responsibilities.
“As students become more involved with their finances,
these are issues they are going to deal with,” Stane
continued.
Identity theft and fraud occur for a number of reasons.
Documents containing sensitive information, such as bank statements
and receipts, can be used to open new credit cards and bank
accounts.
“It’s important that if you throw away receipts and
statements that you shred them,” said Stane. He recommends
that every student purchase a paper shredder.
Identity theft can also be caused by phone and e-mail
solicitations. Individuals may pretend to be calling from a bank to
“verify” a customer’s information. In these
cases, the person may ask for a social security number, credit card
number or bank account number.
“Always be suspicious if someone calls and asks for your
information,” Stane said.
The e-mail equivalent of these schemes is known as
“phishing.” Individuals may receive e-mails with a link
to a Web site, asking them to verify their information. Though the
e-mail may appear to be from a financial institution, it is really
a scam.
Stane tells students to “protect your information”
and “be aware of when people ask for information about
you.”
UCLA has worked to protect campus servers, which have sensitive
information. Servers have anti-virus services and firewalls in
place, according to Kent Wada, director of information technology
at the Office of Information Technology.
“It’s clearly something very real,” Wada said.
He advises students to “be careful who you do transactions
with.”
One way for students to check their credit activity is by going
towww.annualcreditreport.com. The Web site allows students each
year to access one free credit report for each major credit
agency.
Though students cannot get their credit score for free, they can
check how many accounts they have opened in addition to the
activity in each account. And while many students on campus are not
too concerned with identity theft, they still take measures to
prevent it.
“I don’t really think about it that much,”
said Jojo Lagace, a second-year mechanical engineering student.
“I’m not very worried about it,” echoed Emily
Shoji, a first-year undeclared student. “I just tear it
up,” she said about her old credit card statements. “My
mom tells me to throw away the pieces in different trash
cans.”
A California law has been put into place to better protect
consumers. Since July 1, 2003, businesses and government agencies
have been required to notify consumers when computer hackers access
consumers’ private information.
Senator Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., has proposed national
legislation based on California’s law. Her proposal is known
as the Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act.
Regardless of what laws are put into place, many students on
campus can continue to protect themselves on an individual
basis.
Soll has a friend who writes “See ID” on the back of
his credit card where the signature box is located. This forces
merchants to check for identification when taking the card.