NOT THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: Schools Unwittingly Abet Identity Theft
Puerto Rico recently invalidated and re-issued birth certificates of everyone born on the island because identity thieves had been stealing the documents from schools and churches and selling them for as much as $6,000 to illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America (second item). If you think nothing like this could happen in the U.S.A., think again. An investigation by the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General finds that schools across the nation put children at risk of identity fraud by unnecessarily asking for their Social Security numbers, The Washington Times reports:
Some school systems in at least 26 states collect the nine-digit identifiers when students from kindergarten through high school register for classes, even though the respective state does not require it as a matter of law, according to a report released last week.
Seven states require school systems to collect Social Security numbers as their primary means to track and identify students, though other methods would be as efficient, investigators said.
In one case, they found an elementary school poster contest in which students were directed to put their Social Security numbers on entry forms attached to the backs of posters.
"We believe such practices increase the risk of SSN misuse and unnecessarily subject students to the possibility of identity theft," investigators said in the report, which noted the growing number of identity theft victims who are under the age of 19. "Identity thieves often target children because they have clean credit histories, and their records may be used for years before they realize their identity has been used for criminal activities."
According to the report, there have been 40 school-related breaches of personally identifiable information in just the past five years.
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