After an identity theif was arrested for using Joseph Slater’s social security number and home address to max out six credit cards totaling $38,000, it took a while before Slater could clear his name and recover his credit.
“Even though I had the best possible case of, here is a man who is guilty and is sitting in jail, it still was a long process of writing letters and making phone calls to get my name cleared,” Slater, a professor of law instruction at U. Toledo, said. “Some people even wanted signed letters from the police to say they had actually arrested this guy.”
Marge Dell, head teller at UT’s Credit Union said it is always best to follow up with the credit card company to make sure no additional charges remain on the account after the fraud.
Dell said it is always best to make a police report if the fraud has not been caught.
“Call the company of the card that was lost and then if the police can investigate, let them investigate also because the companies usually do not have investigators where the police do,” she said.
A representative from UT’s Student Legal Services said they do not regurlarly deal with credit card and identity theft.
Linda Bowyer, associate professor of finance, said she recommends students sign up for programs that track their purchases such as Credit Watch.
“I pay a monthly fee for it, so that any time I use that on the Internet, it calls me so if someone else tries to use it, it’s going to call me before it processes the transaction,” she said. “It’s worth it. Most Visa and MasterCard services have something like a Credit Watch service. That’s just being safe.”
Bowyer hosts a program in the residence halls to inform students on building their credit.
Bowyer said her biggest concern for students is when they have an unnecessary number of credit cards.
“I will ask students to bring their wallets and their purse with them and I will have them open it up and show me how many credit cards they have,” she said. “My record is 23, and the student who had 23 credit cards carried them with her all the time. So if she would ever lose her wallet or her purse or it would get stolen, she’s screwed simply from an identity theft standpoint. There’s no way you could make enough phone calls quickly to stop all of that.”
Bowyer recommends students make a Xerox copy of both sides of all credit cards to keep track of their information and said students should have a maximum of three credit cards, one which would be used exclusively for Internet purchases.
“They need one that they use on the Internet, they need one that they carry with them to buy gas or whatever and then you need one other one that you leave in your desk drawer, your underwear drawer or somewhere that nobody is going to find,” she said. “That’s like your back up credit card for when your transmission drops out of your car and it’s Christmas time and you’ve already put a lot of other stuff on the other cards. This is a $500 credit card sitting there with nothing on it.”
Instead of having a credit card explicitly for Internet use, Dell recommends students purchase a gift card for online purchases and to never use a Web site they, or a friend, have not used.
“If you get a gift card when you’re going on a Web site they can’t get you for more than what that gift card’s set up for,” Dell said. “It’s just another way of protecting yourself. It may cost a little more, but it’s worth it to protect yourself.”
Dell said remembering simple things such as “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” when shopping online can go a long way in preventing credit card and identity theft and the best thing for students to do is to check their bank balances regularly to make sure they have not become a victim.
Though credit card and identity theft happens to approximately 9 million Americans a year according to the Federal Trade Commission, Dell said people should “have some faith.”
“I hate to put a scare into people, but it’s so easy now and there’s so many crooks out there right now because times are hard,” she said. “When times are hard, people that you’d never dream would do something are the ones that usually do it. Just use common sense and have some faith. You can’t be completely suspicious of everyone.”