Recently I have been receiving several credit card applications in the mail and I wondered why it is that credit card companies are targeting college students and how this relates to identity theft. An article from CBS News titled College Students Prime Target For ID Theft, talks about how students ages 18-24 are being targeted now more than ever with credit card applications. The article claims that this is due to the naivety of college students and their unfamiliarity with credit cards. How this related to identity theft is the fact that many students, who receive these applications, just throw them away without shredding or destroying them. When this happens, anyone off the street can just walk by, pick it up, and fill it out in your name. This is a scary thought because college students are not likely to check on their financial records on a daily basis and may not even know someone has stolen their identity until it is too late.
Ways in which to prevent this from happening are simple. First, shred and destroy anything that comes from a credit card company or anything with sensitive information on it. Parents can also help their college student be responsible with their finances and prevention of identity theft. Besides investing in a shredder, parents should talk to their kids about being financially aware. Along with this comes pulling credit checks. This should be done often in order to ensure that no one has stolen your identity. This article really helped me to realize that stealing someone’s identity is easy if you are not taking the proper precautions to protect yourself. I am glad that I read this article because hopefully now I can stop anything before it happens.
It still amazes me how easy it is to get your identity stolen from something as simple as a credit card application. I usually just throw those applications away, but now I know to be more careful with that kind of thing!
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