College students are prime targets of ID thieves, scammers

9:18 a.m. EDT September 11, 2016   College students and high school seniors might not know it, but they're prime targets for ID thieves and scammers.

"They have limited credit profiles and rarely, do they, or their parents, think to check their credit," said Adam Levin, chairman of IDT911 and author of Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers and Identity Thieves.

We've heard more back-to-school warnings lately from the Internal Revenue Service that fraudsters are trying to get students to put money on iTune cards to pay off fraudulent bills relating to phony things such as a "federal student tax."

But other scams are targeting college students, too.

Fraudsters are pretending to be from the office of college admissions and threatening the student will be dropped from the class if payment isn't made immediately. Some callers demand money on hard-to-trace gift cards.

"If students receive a call like this, they should hang up and report the scam call to the college admissions office," Levin said.

Another scam: Students who are working on campus might receive an e-mail to verify information. They're encouraged to click on a link and provide a user name and password, which the hackers steal.

The hacker then goes into the campus system to change where the paycheck is direct deposited, said Von Welch, director for the Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research in Bloomington.

If students don't check their balances, they might not realize the money was deposited elsewhere and they could trigger overdraft fees, if they keep spending as usual.

"That one is painful," Welch said.

Experts say there's a growing cybersecurity threat at schools and other large institutions. A large database of personal information for students and college professors is not much different than data for a large company or health care provider.

"All that information in one place becomes a target," Welch said.

Once crooks have your Social Security number and other ID, con artists can open up credit cards, file fake federal tax returns to generate four-figure refunds, or apply for jobs.

College students can lose ID information to crooks if they throw out any credit card applications they receive without shredding them or leave a Social Security card or other documents containing ID information in a car or dorm room, too.

"College dorm rooms have an open and revolving door, where personal information, including bank account numbers, credit card information, Social Security numbers often listed on FAFSA applications, utility bills and more are fair game to countless individuals who hang in students' rooms or hang out with them on or near campus or online," Levin said.

Given such concerns, millennials need to keep a careful watch on their credit.

How soon should young consumers obtain a free annual credit report? 

Maybe as young as 16, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

"Why 16? It gives parents enough time to clean up errors before their kids go through a credit check to rent an apartment, apply for a job or get a student credit card," said Michael Schreiber, editor in chief at Credit.com.

Here's the thing to know: Generally, a child who is younger than 18, should not have a credit report on file. So a credit report for a young teen is a possible red flag of ID theft, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

A minor child might wrongly have a credit report, for example, if a consumer who has a similar name as the minor child obtained credit and the credit reporting company created a file for the child in error.

Or a child might have a credit report if an identity thief obtained a loan in the child's name.

A minor could have a legitimate report if he or she is an authorized user on a parent's credit card.

It's better to correct wrong information in a credit report as early as possible.

A parent is able to request information for a minor child's credit files from credit reporting companies, if you provide documents showing that you are the child's legal guardian. Often, parents or guardians need to send documents by mail to check credit reports for minors.