Credit card fraud hits campus

Students must be wary of anyone asking for their personal information, local police officers said Wednesday.\nThe warning comes after an incident last week when a student reported to IU Police Department that she had fallen prey to an apparent scam to obtain her personally identifiable information by petitioning her to fill out a credit card application, IU Police Lt. Jerry Minger said.\n"They saturated the area," said Minger of the two suspects.\nWhile outside a classroom in Ballantine Hall last Wednesday, the student was approached by two college-aged males, the report said. One of the individuals said he was working on a class project and asked the student to fill out an application, which is believed to be from Bank of America.\nThe student refused to give out her Social Security Number despite attempts by the individuals to beguile her into disclosing this information, the report said. Other students are reported to have filled out the applications. \nAlthough the facts are still fuzzy, Minger said this was an overt attempt to illegitimately solicit personally identifiable information, which ultimately constitutes fraud, a Class D Felony in the state of Indiana. \nThe report is just one in a series by college campuses coast-to-coast. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and most recently Michigan have reported similar incidents, said H. Scott Donner, president-elect of International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administration.\nCoinciding with the widespread popularity of the Internet, credit card fraud has become a growing concern among law enforcement personnel, financial institutions and government officials, Donner said. \nDonner tells students to be careful when divulging any personal information, especially Social Security Numbers.\n"The main thing as far as identity theft goes is don't give out your Social Security Number to anybody," he said. "Ask questions like: 'What are your credentials? Why do you need it? How will it be used?'"\nAccording to the American Bankers Association, credit card fraud -- of which identity is a part -- cost financial institutions alone $698 million in 1999. And the Federal Trade Commission reported the single largest type of identity theft is pirating information to open a credit card account. Although precise figures are scarce, by some accounts, there could be as many as 750,000 cases of identity theft this year, making it one of the fastest-growing types of financial fraud in the United States, the FTC said.\nTo assume someone else's identity for a credit card, a thief would need need a name, address, Social Security Number, place of employment and an estimate of annual income. The thief can then begin to fraudulently use the card at their own will. \n"Your personal information can be used to get credit cards to purchase an exuberant amount of products or they can use it to initiate a bank account," Minger said. "The possibilities are endless. Anything you can do legally with your personal information, they can do illegally." \nBank of America said the recent spat of incidents appear to be deliberate attempts to pilfer people's personal identity for fraudulent purposes and maintain that they take all necessary measures to safeguard their customer's privacy.\n"We work very hard to protect our customer's privacy and assets and where there is a fraud reported we take immediate and appropriate action to reimburse any missing funds," said Angela Ashley, a public relations liaison for Bank of America.\nMeanwhile, Minger said students should be wary of people requesting personal information, lest they become pawns of identity pirates. \n"Anyone that thinks that they have been a victim can give us a call and no one should give out their personal information unless they know it is a legitimate company," he said.