Originally published February 26 2006
Purdue changes student ID numbers from social security numbers after student experiences ID theft
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
College students are vulnerable to ID theft when their Social Security number is their school's ID number, reports a Purdue newspaper.
Two years ago, Justin Bolles attempted to purchase something using his credit card and was surprised when it came back declined.
He had become a victim of identity theft, an act of which the majority of victims are 18- to 29-year old individuals, according to a 2005 Federal Trade Commission report.
Bolles' incident is an example of a reason why Purdue eliminated the usage of Social Security numbers as student IDs at the beginning of this semester.
Rob Stanfield, interim director of the Identity and Access Management Office, said that the use of the Social Security number allowed for compromised data to be correlated with data obtained elsewhere.
By eliminating the Social Security number, there is now less of a chance of students being victims of identity theft and more of a chance to avoid the biggest victim loss in the crime, which is not money, but time.
Scott Ksander, senior inforensics analyst/engineer for Information Technology at Purdue, said that the average amount of money lost is small?
Bolles said that after he first figured he had been victimized, he called his bank to have the card frozen.
The bank then sent him about 10 or 12 pages of paperwork to fill out and said it would research the incident.
He said his account was credited almost instantly for the items that he didn't charge, but the bank didn't erase the overdraft fees, which ended up being about $95.
Ksander said another way to decrease the chances of becoming a victim is to have a credit card specifically for online purchases, so as to know for sure what is being bought with it.
He said the major credit bureaus now offer free reports, which means you can get a free report from each of the three major companies.
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