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Education

Summer days With several people's personally identifiable information on
each form, a database of FAFSA forms is a fraudsters' dream.
drifting away Indeed, one of the fastest growing areas of data breaches is
universities. In 2015, Harvard revealed it had discovered
a breach affecting eight schools and administrative
to ... FAFSA forms? organizations. Recently, the IRS discovered fraudsters were
using FAFSA forms to automatically populate victims' tax
information. If you have client organizations in the higher
By Don Bush education or tax service spheres, these developments are of
Kount Inc. concern to them.

hether it's due to warm weather, vacations Fraudsters are also taking advantage of the fact that many
or no school (for kids anyway), people look students have negligible credit history and thus don't moni-
forward to summer's arrival. Not on anyone's tor their credit to ensure it is protected. This leaves an op-
W list of favorite summer activities is filling out portunity for thieves, who use the information collected
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms. through FAFSA forms to open credit card and other loan
Yet soon-to-be seniors preparing to apply to college must accounts in these students' names – effectively ruining vic-
fill out those pesky forms. Some of your merchant custom- tims' credit before they are out of their teens.
ers are bound to be parents of teens who are doing just that. Preventive measures

Filling out a FAFSA form is daunting – it requires providing How can students, parents, universities, tax preparation
Social Security numbers, tax returns, bank statements and services, and merchants victimized by criminals using sto-
more from students and their parents. len identities mitigate FAFSA fraud? They can advise all
those filling out these forms to:
Snap Shot of 2017 1. Create a new, strong and secure password for the
FAFSA site.
Calendar of Events 2. Not share login information with anyone, including

officials who may be helping with an application.

3. Keep documents, tax returns and other sensitive in-
formation safe, and use a shredder to dispose of them
properly.
4. Monitor the whole family's accounts regularly (bank
accounts, credit scores, etc.)
5. Sign up for a service that monitors your personal
information and alerts you to any change, use or mis-
August 22 -23 use of it.

www.theprepaidexpo.com Safekeeping all documents with sensitive information and
consistently checking accounts for fraudulent activity are
surefire ways to stay on top of fraud. You can step into an
advisory role and do your merchant clients a service by re-
minding them of this.
Don Bush joined Kount as Director of Marketing in October 2010 and
September 27 - 28 became Vice President of Marketing in December 2012. Previously, he was
Director of Marketing at CradlePoint, a leading manufacturer of wireless
www.westernstatesacquirers.com routing solutions in the mobile broadband industry. Don has worked in
several management roles within the technology segment for over 20
years with both hardware/software manufacturers and as a partner in
http://www.greensheet.com/date- two top technology marketing agencies. He has led products launches
book.php?flag=calendar_display and marketing programs for dozens of companies around the world such
as Citi, HP, IBM, Kodak, Motorola and Weyerhaeuser, and he co-authored
the seminar series, "Common Launch Disasters and How to Avoid Them."
Contact him at don.bush@kount.com.

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