Today’s scam of the day is quite similar to others that I have written about because colleges and universities have become prime targets for identity thieves.  Just last year the University of Nebraska was hacked and personal information of hundreds of thousands of people were stolen, making those people probable identity theft victims.  In the University of Delaware hacking which was discovered just recently, personal records including names, addresses and Social Security numbers were stolen for at least 72,000 people.  The university is still trying to ascertain the full extent of the breach.  The University of Delaware is offering to pay for three years of credit monitoring for those people who had their personal information compromised and is sending letters and emails to those affected.  If you think that you may be effected, you can check with the University of Delaware at http://www.udel.edu/it/response.

TIPS

The continuing hacking of colleges and universities points out one of my basic warnings, which is that you are only as safe as the security at the weakest place that holds your personal information.  As a rule you should limit the places that hold personal information such as your Social Security number which is a key to identity theft to those places that truly need it.  You should also inquire of any company, agency, school or other organization that has personal information about you a to what they do to protect that information.