College Times

Media Credit: Courtesy Life Lock

Hey you. Yeah, you. Guess what? I’m you. I just assumed your identity, bought myself a houseboat, a new four-wheeler and a sweet coin collection from QVC, slaughtering your credit score and dashing your future hopes with a single swiping of your personal information.

Don’t believe it? Maybe you should. The Federal Trade Commission’s recent survey on identity theft reveals that a third of all identity theft victims fall between 18 and 29, and many college students routinely exhibit behavior that the FTC warns against in preventing the crime.

Recent University of Colorado graduate Zachary Friesen can vouch for the statistics first-hand, as he himself was a victim of identity theft.

Now he’s made it his mission to help warn other students, speaking at over 500 colleges and high schools across the nation, and most recently, with College Times.

College Times: How was your ID stolen?

Zachary Friesen: When I was 17, just coming out of high school looking to go to college, I needed to get a summer job to pay for a student loan I was looking to get. I was denied the loan and thought I just had bad credit, so I went to find as many jobs as I could. I was denied, as a result of bad credit. And I went back, filled out the applications probably six or seven times, and couldn’t quite seem to get it right, and the manager told me, “No, it’s bad credit. You’ve got so much debt that they’re not letting us hire you because you’re a liability, and it is, in fact, you.” So I called the police and talked with them, and they finally directed me to credit reporting agencies and found out that when I was 7 – 10 years earlier – somebody had stolen my identity and bought a house boat in my name, putting me about $40,000 in debt.

What could you have done differently?

There’s a lot of stuff that I could’ve done differently in terms of when I, sort of, was becoming an adult going into college to prevent it, and to have gotten a heads up. There’s a lot mom and dad could’ve done, but in 1992, it it was sort of not really a big crime that was known about back then. It was happening a lot, but nobody really knew about it. One of the big reasons that they’re targeting teens and college students is that they don’t check and don’t know. One of the biggest things that I could’ve done different is just to have checked. To have been informed about identity theft and credit history, and not have that misconception that a lot of college students have. You know, I’ve got five bucks, that’s about it. The rest went to books and classes, and that sort of stuff. So if someone wants to steal five bucks from me, I’m not out a whole lot. And it really isn’t just that. It’s the money you could be loaned; it’s your credit; it’s your good name. There’s a lot more to it than that.

What tips would you give to college students to protect themselves?

First, just be informed and check. If you don’t know, if you don’t check, you’re basically a sitting duck. You give out your information in so many places, your parents have given out your information so many places, it’s just silly not to check at least once a year. Second thing that college students really need to do is just know that people are out there looking for that information. A good rule of thumb is if someone contacts you, you need to consider it suspect. If people approach you in the student union asking for you to fill out personal information for a raffle, or a free t-shirt, or free pizza, be aware that there’s a reason they’re asking for that information…And lastly, you need to have that ability to challenge authority figures, especially professors and TAs, when they ask for that kind of personal information…A lot of universities are no longer supposed to ask for your Social Security number on tests, but a lot of the tests still have that space for you to put it down, print it out on the form.

Any last words of advice?

Be really careful, because there’s a lot of scams out there. That FreeCreditReport.com commercial that I see, every time I bang my head against the wall, it’s just so painful. Because it’s a scam, it’s not free. There’s so many great resources out there, through the government and through other companies that are free; will give you a free credit report, no questions asked. There are a lot of great websites like TransUnion.com, EquiFacts and Experion, those are the three credit reporting agencies. You can get one from all three by going to AnnualCreditReport.com.

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