San Diego, CA. - The crime of identity theft is a
widespread and growing problem that has caught the
attention of the media. Generally overlooked, however,
in the ensuing publicity was an interesting piece of
demographic information, the Federal Trade Commission
found in recent studies that young people in the 18-29
age group experienced the highest levels of
victimization, comprising 31 percent of the total
thefts.
When Javelin Strategy and Research co-released its 2006
Identity Fraud Survey Report with the Better Business
Bureau, it revealed the number of US adult victims of
identity fraud decreased by a half million over 2005,
but the total one year fraud amount rose to $56.6
billion and a fraud amount per fraud victim of $6,383.
These statistics are included in a new college level
identity theft prevention course developed by Johnny May
of Bloomfield Hills, MI., an independent security
consultant, trainer and the author of "Johnny May's
Guide to Preventing Identity Theft" May teaches the
courses to students at two Michigan colleges, Madonna
University (Livonia, Michigan) and Henry Ford Community
College (Dearborn, Michigan).
"How often does a young person order a credit report? I
think the mind-set is they don't have anything worth
losing", said Johnny May. "A lot of them work part time
or for minimum wage, some don't work at all." "The
reality is this makes it easy for identity theft to
occur and the identity can be used for a long time
without the victim's knowledge".
In a 2004 Summit on Protecting Teens from Identity
Theft, one of the recommendations was for both high
schools and colleges to integrate identity theft
awareness and prevention techniques in to their
curriculums. "Young people are extremely susceptible to
identity theft, for this reason they need to be educated
on this topic," May said.
Mr. May, who obtained his ICFE Certified Identity Theft
Risk Management Specialist (CITRMS) certification in
April 2007, has also developed a new identity theft
prevention and awareness training program which is
geared at college students and high school juniors and
seniors. Mr. May's web site is: IdentityTheftInfo.com.