Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft: Essential Strategies for Consumers

1. The following is a presentation prepared for NASFAA’s 2007 Conference in Washington, DCJuly 8-11, 2007

2. Identity Theft and You Presented by Paula Craw and Jeff Southard Identity Theft

3. “An informed borrower is simply less vulnerable to fraud and abuse.” -Alan Greenspan

4. Agenda • What is Identity Theft? • You may be a target • Why you should protect yourself • Current rules protecting consumers • How is identity theft committed? • Deter • Detect • Defend

5. What is Identity Theft? • Wrongful use of your personal information to commit fraud or other crimes • Committed by 2 types of thieves: • skilled professionals • acquaintances with access to your personal financial information

6. You may be a target • Nobody is truly safe from identity theft • FTC estimates 10 million victimized yearly • Lack of tough consequences for poor security • Protection for consumers is minimal • Consequences for committing theft outweighed by benefits for criminals

7. Rules to protect you • Federal Level • Gramm-Leach Bliley Act • FERPA • FACTA • State by state legislation varies • CA leader in state privacy protection • Some states offer little protection

8. How is identity theft committed? • Dumpster diving or shoulder surfing • Skimming • “Phishing” • Changing your address • Theft or forwarding of your mail

9. How is identity theft committed? • Old fashioned stealing • Telephone scams • Pre-approved credit card offers by mail • Business record theft – stealing files from offices where you’re a customer, employee, patient or student

10. How is identity theft committed? • Establish phone service • Open a bank account and write bad checks • Counterfeit checks or debit cards to drain your account

11. Why protect yourself? • Prospective employer pulls credit – you don’t get the job because credit report shows poor handling of finances • Denial of mortgage application • Skyrocketing car insurance rates

12. Did you know? • 20% of identity thieves know their victims personally • Losses to identity theft victims exceed $5 billion annually

13. Deter: safeguard your information • Protect your financial “holy trinity” • Name and address • Date of Birth • Social Security Number • Shred financial documents and paperwork with personal information

14. Deter: safeguard your information • Never lend credit cards or account information to anyone • Delete unsolicited emails • Protect your home computer-use firewalls, anti-spyware and anti-virus software

15. Deter: safeguard your information • Be smart when setting up passwords • IuSP4moP! • Keep your personal info in a secure place • Don’t let mail pile up unattended

16. Did you know? • Losses to businesses and financial institutions exceed $50 billion annually • 27.5 million victimized in the last five years

17. Detect: monitor your accounts • Request a free copy of your credit report on a regular basis: www.annualcreditreport.com • or call 877-322-8228 • Review financial accounts and billing statements regularly

18. Detect: monitor your accounts • Be alert to: • bills that don’t arrive as expected • unexpected credit cards or acct statements • denials of credit for no apparent reason • calls or letters about purchases you didn’t make

19. Defend: take action immediately • Place a fraud alert on your credit reports • Contact credit bureaus to do so – you’ll get free copies of your reports • Equifax – 800.525.6285 • Experian – 888.397.3742 • TransUnion – 800.680.7289

20. Defend: take action immediately • File a police report and make copies • Review credit reports carefully • Close accounts tampered with or established fraudulently – contact each company, follow up in writing

21. OPT-OUT today • Credit bureau opt-out • 888.567.8688 • Allows you to opt out of pre-approved credit offers for a period of 5 years or indefinitely