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[April 26, 2006]

Identity thieves prey on Rutgers students

(Comtex Community Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., Apr 26, 2006 (Daily Targum, U-WIRE via COMTEX) --When Rutgers College Junior Qandeel Sheikh realized she had lost her wallet on a University bus, she reported it to Parking and Transportation Services, the Rutgers University Police Department and the Rutgers Student Center lost and found, as well as informing her credit card companies.


But despite these actions, Sheik didn't realize the potential harm that could arise form the mishap.

"All I knew was that I had to notify the institutions and banks," she said. "I never even considered the fact that I had my identification cards in there as well."

Fortunately for Sheik, after two months her wallet was found with all of its contents.

Sheikh said she was unaware of the Rutgers Web sites that instruct students about how to avoid scams involving criminal use of their personal information.

"I should have been more careful and perhaps asked someone about what I should do to ensure no identity fraud took place as a result of my losing personal information," Sheik said.

Identity fraud is a federal offense, which means local police have "no uniform crime report for identity fraud," RUPD Det. Kyle Carkhuff said.

Jurisdiction presents problems when reporting theft and fraud to law enforcement, since the location where personal information is lost or stolen is rarely the location where someone makes illegal use that information. "There really is no such crime as identity theft," Carkhuff said.

Scott Christie, an attorney specializing in information technology and white-collar crime, said, "College life magnifies the risk to students who are otherwise vulnerable just because of their age and lack of world savvy."

He said the college setting is one where students meet and trust new people with important information.

Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Brian Rose said students should contact his office when they suspect fraudulent use of their personal information.

The University provides students with access to the Identity Theft 911 service, which helps students restore credit damaged by identity fraud.

"Students haven't tried to access that benefit, " Rose said.

Although the service has been available to students since Sept. 2005, Sheikh said she was unaware and therefore did not report the loss of her passport to administrators. "I didn't think they could help me," she said.

Rose attributed the high number of educational institution security breach reports, published by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in 2005, to a culture of transparency in higher education.

"The culture here is to report," he said. "Students are most vulnerable in ways that aren't related to their relationship to the institution, but rather their relationships with each other."

He said most students treat each other with openness and trust - "perhaps misplaced trust," he said - which can lead to loss of personal information, such as when students leave a resident hall room door open or a laptop on the table in the library.

Rose said his office is interested in helping students apply to programs in ways that do not compromise their personal information.

He said his office would like to hear about, "real verifiable episodes where somebody didn't do what they should do," when handling a student's personal information.

Rutgers students regularly encounter phishing efforts - phony e-mails designed to snag personal information. In phishing, the person sending the e-mail often poses as a trusted financial institution and requests personal information from the victim.

Rose said Rutgers doesn't warn students after every phishing effort because the repeated warnings would create a "cry wolf" problem and eventually be ignored.

Students were alerted about a recent phishing effort from the phony "Rutgers Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union," which Rose said "might have been taken seriously by someone who didn't have the sensitivity to know the way a credit bureau would typically do business."

Christie said some students don't have the world experience to know it is unusual for a bank to e-mail customers and ask them to update personal account information. Anyone can monitor the use of their credit through the credit bureaus Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Students who lose personal information and hesitate to contact the credit bureaus can be more vulnerable to identity fraud and risk facing higher costs than those who contact the credit bureaus to install a freeze and fraud alert.

Since the New Jersey Identity Theft Prevention Act became law, citizens are entitled to a free freeze on their accounts.

However, a student planning to conduct a job search with a freeze in place would have to contact the credit bureaus to arrange to release personal information to each potential employer.

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