As college students get settled on campus, fighting fraud may not be at the top of their list of priorities. College students are susceptible to identity theft, however, and Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona recommends that they take seven simple steps to protect themselves on campus.

In 2010, 8.1 million Americans – or 3.5 percent of the population – became victims of identity theft, according to the 2011 Identity Fraud Survey conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research and sponsored by BBB. The average mean cost of identity theft is $631 and the average time to resolve identity fraud is 33 hours – valuable study time.

“Friendly fraud” accounts for 14 percent of all ID theft crimes. This means that new roommates and friends have just as much potential of being as dastardly as a foreign-based scam artist phishing on the Internet. And identity thieves – friend or foe – think nothing of dumpster diving (or rifling through unattended trash cans) for unshredded paperwork or even taking mail from unlocked mailboxes (or off a (more…)