Graduating high school? Yeah! Going to college? Yes! Identity Stolen? No!

Excerpts from an article written by Identity IQ, an identity theft and credit monitoring services company. The full article is located here.

“Students are four times more likely to be targets of fraud that can go undetected for years compared to other consumers.” It’s amazing what can be accomplished with a little awareness and a few steps “where you no longer appear an easy target for identity theft.”

Take action today to establish your “safety net.”

In addition to the items listed below Credit Repair USA recommends students review and freeze their credit reports with all 3 credit bureaus. We help people do this and will explain the reports for free as our way to give back. Click here and let us know.

Not oversharing information on social media.

Don’t overshare personal details that might be related to the accounts and passwords you are using. Ideally, you should make More Complex Passwords that don’t contain any of your personal information.

Keep your security information on a hard drive instead of a device.

When you keep sensitive documents stored away, you can feel at ease. So, if your phone or laptop gets stolen, you won’t have to worry about the thief using your identity.

Frequently changing passwords.

You might feel tempted to use the same password repeatedly. But this isn’t a good idea. Use different ones to better safeguard your personal information.

Recognizing phishing scams.

Many criminals use fake loan listings and fake scholarships to get college students to share their private information. Make sure you only share that information with a reputable institution.

Be careful when using public Wi-Fi.

Public networks are not secure. You can stay safe if you don’t access your financial or personal information on a public network. In fact, the FTC recommends paying attention to the web browser alerts you are getting.

If you are using a public Wi-Fi, you should enable a VPN that keeps your information encrypted.