Identity thieves have stolen the tax returns of 93 University of California, Irvine (UCI) students and up to 7,ooo students are at risk according to the Orange County Register. The identity theft ring was detected when several UCI students reported to campus police that their tax returns came back “already processed”. Now that has got to be an alarming and scary feeling to receive that notice from the IRS. UCI police are investigating but have not found the source of the leak. They believe the compromised data only affects graduate students who attended between 2004 and 2007. The State of California has since banned the use of Social Security Numbers as student identification.
Details of this particular crime remain sketchy though it is known that IRS investigators have become involved. It certainly appears that this is more than just one hacker, or one bad employee and that it likely has ties to an identity theft ring. Students are encouraged to process their returns immediately as that is the only way to know that their personal information has been used fraudulently with the IRS. Unfortunately, as with any data breach, the attack can happen tomorrow or 20 yeas later and can take many different forms. There are many steps one can take to protect their identity and their are many identity protection options that can be purchased through credit bureaus, insurance companies and identity protection companies like Lifelock and TrustedID but none of the available options could protect you from this particular crime.
The best advice we can give is to file your return immediately if you haven’t already, keep your information up to date with the IRS and file your tax returns in the following years as early as possible. This is sound advice for anyone who has experienced a breach of their private records as the IRS does not check your credit report when authorizing your return and therefore will not be alerted by a fraud alert. Additionally, you should not give out your personal information to the IRS on the phone or by responding to an email. These are common scams.
To protect yourself from other forms of identity theft we strongly recommend that you place fraud alerts on your credit file and renew them every 90 days and order and examine your free annual credit report yearly. The good news for those students on a budget is that this can all be done for free. If you are barely making ends meet and living off Kraft Dinner (ah, those were the days) then you probably don’t need to be concerned with insurance or a guarantee that an identity protection service would provide. So take the initiative and protect your good name and credit today. If you don’t have the time, want the insurance or wont remember to renew your fraud alerts then consider utilizing a company like Lifelock, Loudsiren Debix, or TrustedId. They will take those necessary steps, give you insurance and/or a service guarantee and remove you from pre-approved credit card offers and junk mail lists as well. Each service also has other value added options that may interest you.
There are other less effective options such as credit monitoring, or more restrictive options such as credit freezes that are available for a fee as well. The only decision you will truly regret is the decision to do nothing. As we have mentioned many times we strongly recommend fraud alerts but we do realize that this is not the right choice for everybody. What is most important is that you do something because any action that reduces your chances of becoming an identity theft victim is a good action to take. What are you waiting for? Protect yourself now!