Megan Beaudy, a junior education major, has been robbed. She has been robbed of her time. She has been robbed of her credit. She has been robbed of her identity.
“Last summer, the credit card company called me, and said they just wanted to make sure all my information was right, and I really did want this credit card,” Beaudy said. “I didn’t know what they were talking about. I don’t even want a credit card. This summer someone called me again.”
“I’ve never lost my Social Security card or my license or anything. I don’t know how it keeps happening to me,” Beaudy said.
In the past two years, Beaudy has had her identity stolen twice, once in the summer of 2002 and again in the summer of 2003. She is one in a series of 74 Cabrini-affiliated people, students, faculty and alumni, who have been victimized by a former employee who worked here from 2000 to 2001.
“The police have found that an employee has gotten his hands on student information, and he has been slowly using that for about a year, picking students here,” Charlie Schaffner, the director of Public Safety, said. “It was a contract employee. Let’s leave it at that.”
Schaffner went on to say that a number of police departments, including Radnor, Upper Southampton, and various New Jersey departments, were involved in the search for the suspect who was finally apprehended on Wednesday, Sept. 3.
Police had a hard time tracking down the culprit, according to Schaffner. Philadelphia police conducted a number of raids in order to “locate the individual,” who, apparently, frequently changed the mailing address. All the addresses were in North Philadelphia.
Beaudy was told that suspect changed the name, birth date, and place of employment in both cases of fraud. The place of employment on the first case was Arthur Jackson.
Postal authorities did a “controlled delivery” when police officials informed them of the situation. An appliance, ordered with a credit theft credit card was delivered to one of the addresses in North Philadelphia. When the suspect accepted it, police arrested her.
She gave police the name of the individual who sold it to her. This suspect gave police the name of the individual who did the original theft, and he was taken into custody.
“All the information was recovered,” Schaffner said.
Beaudy was one of the lucky ones. Loans were opened with her line of credit, but no charges were ever made. According to her last credit report, she has incurred no lasting damage to her credit.
As soon as she was made aware of the theft, Beaudy called the credit fraud departments of the three primary credit unions. This flags one’s name and social security number, and notice will be given before any accounts are opened, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
“I thought it would last for at least a year,” Beaudy said, “but when it happened the second time, they told me that it only lasts about 7 months.”
The FTC also advises that all suspicious accounts be closed and a police report is filed and a formal complaint is filed with the FTC.
Beaudy said that she shreds all her documents now that she has had her identity stolen.
“I don’t put my social security number on anything I don’t have to. I’m wary about that,” she said.
“The problem is that the students are somewhat careless with their information. For example, in the past your social security number has appeared on your course schedule. Throwing that away without shredding it or without taking it home is not secure,” Schaffner said.
The Banner system, new this year to Cabrini, was, implemented, in part, to safeguard against identity theft.
“It’s one of the biggest things to come into effect,” Schaffner said. “Now that the Banner system is in place, there is a much narrower field of available information to each individual.”
Administrative precautions are being taken as well. Sensitive information is supposed to be locked up every night.
“We try to eliminate some of the temptation,” Schaffner said.
Contract personnel are on an amended schedule that limits the amount of time they spend in areas containing sensitive information unsupervised.
“If you look at the numbers, the University of Penn has a lot more problems than we have. This is a small institution, and you probably have less chance of having it happen here,” Schaffner said.
In the meantime, however, he suggests that more attention be paid to security and identity.
“It’s a big hassle and a lot of unnecessary work,” Beaudy said.
Posted to the web by Marisa Gallelli
