Student Loans (Score 1)

What people fail to see is that most identity theft happens with students who have loans. Have a student loan? What's your loan number? I bet that 90% of the time a student's loan number is the same as their SSN plus 1 extra digit -- typically a 0 or a 1. Guess where that loan number gets printed all the time? On the notice the school sends you about your financial aid status, the bill the school sends you for tuition, the letter thanking you for paying your bill and letting you know how much of your loan you have left. Its all over the place, and it most likely has your SSN as the account number.

But what could someone do with your student loan number? They could get a credit report listing all of your other info. How? Well the letter your school sends you probably has a verifiable address you've lived at for at least the past 6 months, it probably has your school id (network id, etc) where someone can jolly on to the school's website, type in the id and pull up your permanent address (white pages get the parents name/phone), get your birthdate, and any other info the school leaks.

So they call up the credit check company, give your name, your address, your parents address, your SSN, maybe your credit card number, your birthdate, and then they love to verify a loan for over a couple thousand dollars... like your student loan ... SSN+1.

Man, that was some tough work to get a college kid's entire credit report and start turning their life into a nightmare.....