| 2/18/2007 – About 3.7 percent of all adults were victimized by identity theft last year, according to data from Javelin Strategy & Research of Pleasanton, Calif.
The good news: That’s actually down from the previous two years that Javelin has produced the surveys.
However, guess what age group is most at risk for identity fraud? Supposedly cyber-savvy 18- to 24-year-olds.
About 5.3 percent of these young adults were victimized in the last year, more than any other age group, the research showed.
It appears then that children of the digital generation still have some learning to do to protect themselves.
Here are some basic strategies from Javelin on how young adults — or all of us, for that matter — can combat crooks:
Limit the number of credit cards you carry, and do not keep your Social Security card in your wallet.
Protect your banking and other accounts by adding difficult-to-deduce personal identification numbers and passwords to them. Also, cover the keypad when entering your PIN at the checkout line or automated teller.
Replace paper invoices, bank statements and checks with electronic versions, if offered.
Inspect bank- and brokerage-account statements quickly.
Notify your bank before traveling out of the country so you won’t risk having your credit-card account frozen if bank security picks up transactions from faraway places that seem unusual.
Order your credit reports for free to make sure your credit information is accurate.
To get a complete view of your reports, order one every four months from a different credit agency. Go to annual creditreport.com for a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer-credit-reporting companies.
I’ve done this for my own accounts, and it was easy. Now I’m wondering, should I be checking the credit rating of my three children to make sure they haven’t been victimized?
According to Chicago-based financial educator Susan Beacham: “We are all so focused on protecting our kids online and from child predators. What about making sure they do not become the victims of identity theft?”
Steve Rosen writes for The Kansas City Star. E-mail him at srosen@kcstar.com.
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