Jennifer Ruhland
High school students in the Twin Cities are getting wise to identity theft, thanks to Suzy Wheeler and Jennifer Ruhland of Family Means, a local nonprofit group.
With 4.6% of Americans victimized last year, and more than $50 billion lost annually, the free programs they teach on identity theft have come none too soon. "Many of our students have already had experience with phishing and other scams, or have family and friends who have been impacted," the teachers say.
They teach a three-part method for mitigating identity theft: "Deter, Detect, Defend."
The classes are at no loss for material. Ms. Wheeler and Ms. Ruhland teach definitions of identity theft and prevention using real-life examples of sites popular with teens such as MySpace and Facebook. They discuss student experiences about when they or others close to them were put in questionable situations, and they examine real-life scenarios students are likely to encounter such as discerning whether emails are scams or legitimate.
The educators divide identity theft into two types: account takeover and true name. This allows them to explore how a person's stolen identity can be manipulated for a variety of reasons including money, credit, bank accounts, crime, benefits and employment.
Their discussion of early detection includes the importance of monitoring personal financial documents, instruction on getting their free credit reports, and other "red flags" that may indicate a student has become a victim.
Ms. Wheeler and Ms. Ruhland leave students with information about community resources and steps to take if they do suspect they are victims of identity theft. Reports one student, "Really good job. Made it fun to listen to and related our lives into it. I can better understand the importance of my Social Security and my credit card number."
Since beginning this presentation in area high schools, the teachers have received several phone calls from educators, students and parents requesting further information on identity theft.
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