The Federal Trade Commission estimates 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.
At U. Toledo, there have been 200 reported incidents of credit card and identity theft of students, faculty and staff in the past year, according to Marge Dell, head teller at UT’s Credit Union.
According to Dell, five of those incidents occurred on-campus.
“We had a counselor here that had their identity stolen by her secretary,” she said. “They actually took a mortgage out for their house for $80,000.”
Joseph Slater, professor of law instruction, became a victim of identity theft after someone obtained his social security number and home address in late 2004.
“I would get things in the mail from Circuit City saying, ‘thank you for opening up an account with us. You have reached your $600 limit. Please pay us,’” Slater said.
The man who stole Slater’s identity used his information to max out six credit card accounts with stores in Atlanta, Ga. and was not caught until the seventh account he tried to open.
“I got a call from someone at a jewelry store in Atlanta saying ‘there’s someone here trying to open an account. Is this you?’” he said.
The thief, who is now in jail, used a fake identification card with his picture and Slater’s information on it to charge $38,000 in 72 hours.
Dell said people are most likely to get their information stolen from family members.
“It happens more often than you think,” she said. “If you have any doubts, take it to bed with you. I told one [credit union] member to put her card under her pillow because her daughter kept stealing it.”
For students, though, Dell said they often become victims of credit card and identity theft by leaving their credit cards in public places or not being cautious around strangers.
“I had somebody’s card stolen from the [Student Recreation Center] one time and it was a ring of people involved,” she said. “Only one was a student. The others were outside people that they passed the card off to.”
Lakya Hunter, a freshman majoring in criminal justice, said she suspects she has become a victim of identity theft.
Hunter said she constantly receives phone calls from several companies asking for payments on cars, jewelry and houses after she left her purse at a basketball game in Loraine, Ohio.
Hunter’s social security card was in her purse when she left it.
“Bill collectors, car companies and Rogers Jeweler kept calling for a lady named Tracy Allen and saying that I owed money,” she said. “It still hasn’t stopped yet. Cell phone companies too. I don’t know if maybe she’s opening things in my name with my social security number or what.”
Though her social security card was lost two years ago, Hunter said she has not taken any preventative steps other than getting a new social security card because the calls did not start immediately.
“It was a long time afterwards, and it didn’t come to my mind because over a course of time I forgot about it because nothing had happened so I thought nobody found it,” she said. “But when they started calling me, I came to the conclusion [that I had become a victim of fraud].”
Hunter said she no longer carries her social security card in her purse.
Dell said students on the phone often get into trouble when they use their credit cards to do things such as order pizza when they are in large groups.
“When you order pizza, you have to give them all the numbers because each credit card has a different pin on it, but go to the bathroom or private area and do the charge,” she said. “Don’t do it around acquaintances that maybe you met that night.”
Dell said even friends should not be trusted with credit and ATM cards.
“Don’t give your ATM to your friends,” she said. “A lot of students give them their ATM card to go get some cash out quick. Once you give them that ATM pin number, they can go wild on it. Maybe you trust the person you gave it to, but what makes you think their friend won’t take it?”
Though college students get their credit card and other information stolen most often in bars, restaurants and from acquaintances and friends, Dell said, the most common place for anyone to become victim of fraud are un-authentic internet Web sites and gas stations.
“There once was someone out there using PayPal’s identity to try and get information,” she said. “It wasn’t actually PayPal, but it looked like PayPal, but there was something just a little off about it. You really have to check and make sure nothing seems suspicious. It’s so easy to make up Web sites these days.”
Dell said a lot of people get information stolen from e-mails claiming to be the person’s credit card company asking them to verify their information, a scam commonly known as “phishing.”
“There are even ones that will say, ‘this is your credit card company e-mailing. Please put down your information because there’s been suspicion of fraud on your account,” she said. “Fraud people are getting people’s e-mail addresses and sending these out to a big group of people and a lot of people give them their social security number, their date of birth — everything. Our credit card does not go to e-mail, so we tell cardholders right away, if you get one like that, don’t answer it.”
Slater still does not know how the thief obtained his social security number or why he was targeted.
“What bothers me to this day is that I still don’t know how he got my information; I don’t use shaky looking Web sites. I don’t give out my social security number to just anyone. I suspect it was because the university used to use [social security numbers] as our ID numbers.”
The man who stole Slater’s information in 2004 was reported to have obtained several other fake identification cards with stolen information and opened numerous fraudulent credit card accounts before he was arrested by police.