College students can be particularly vulnerable to identity theft. Not only are they living away from home for the first time, they’re sharing their personal space with a lot of people they don’t know very well.

Here are five important steps they can take to help protect themselves from ID theft:

1. Guard personal items. According to a survey by Travelers Insurance, 67% of ID-fraud claims were caused by old-fashioned theft (stolen wallet, purse, personal identification or computer). Because it is so easy for items to be stolen when your child is at college, tell them not to leave their wallet, purse or computer unattended in the library, cafeteria or at a party.  
2. Protect mail. College students usually have roommates, they move frequently and can spend months away from their dorm or apartment during holiday breaks.  This makes it easy for someone to steal their mail and use the information to steal their identity.  Make sure important mail isn’t lying around. Remind your child to stop mail delivery when they are away for holidays and to forward it to their new address when they move. It may be a good idea to have your child use online banking. 
3. Be careful online. College students use their own computers, school computer and cell phones for almost everything.  Tell your child not to pay bills or access credit-card accounts on a public computer.  Be aware of accessing sensitive information on an unsecure Wi-Fi network. 
4. Question the need to reveal personal information. When new college students are living away from home for the first time, they’re not always used to being skeptical about requests for personal information, especially if it seems to come from an official source.  Remind your student how important it is to guard personal information, especially their Social Security Number.  Make sure the college doesn’t print your child’s SSN on their ID card.
5. Use a shredder. Because they live among so many people, college students need to be careful when disposing documents that contain personal information.  Use a shredder to get rid of credit-card applications, mailings and any other documents that contain sensitive information.

The Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.  Click here for more information on protecting yourself.

Information from Kiplinger.com