Student Loan Blog : identity theft

Student Records at Texas Women’s University Compromised

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:05:00 GMT

After discovering an online loophole that allowed him to access student records, Texas Women’s University student Josh Ingram thought he could use the loophole to change the recorded grades of any student he wanted, the Denton Record-Chronicle reports (“TWU Shuts Down, Secures Computer System After Student Finds Way to Access Adviser Reports,” April 25, 2009).

But school officials say no one, including authorized users of the student record system that Ingram breached, can change grades in the system since any changes made in the university’s Degree Audit Report System can’t be saved.

The online tool isn’t the university’s official record but a copy, school administrators said, that allows students to track their degree progress by viewing student grades and adviser reports. Officials assured students that the incident didn’t leave students vulnerable to identity theft.

“What we’re talking about is student's names, grades, and courses,” said Robert Placido, associate vice president of informational technology services for the Texas school. “It [the system] doesn’t do anything; you can’t save anything. I understand why the student who found it thought you could change information, but you can’t.”

The loophole left the university’s record system, which is typically accessible to only 803 authorized users, exposed to more than 12,000 unauthorized users, Placido said.

Before the university could step in and shut down the site, which took approximately four hours, Placido said that as many as 28 unauthorized individuals had accessed the system. The site has now been secured and is back online, he said, and the issue has been fixed.

As part of securing the system and getting it back online, Placido said, the university added harsh language to the adviser-access section of the site, warning violators who misused the portal that they could be prosecuted.

“We want everyone to understand their information is safe,” Placido said. “The loophole in the system is now closed.”

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Nurse Steals Patients’ Identities in Scheme to Obtain Student Loans

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:12:00 GMT

Risha Renee Shaw — who graduated in November 2008 as a licensed practical nurse from Keiser Career College — paid her way through school by fraudulently obtaining up to $18,000 in student loans, reports the St. Petersburg Times (“Student Loan Scheme Stole IDs of Elderly, Police Say,” March 20, 2009).

Arrested last Friday by St. Petersburg police, the 30-year-old Shaw was charged with two counts each of exploitation of the elderly and identity theft, and is currently being held at the Pinellas County Jail on a $40,000 bond.

Apparently, police say, Shaw exploited her relationship as a nurse with two of her patients and used their identities to obtain two loans from Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student loan provider. Victims included an unnamed 83-year-old man and 80-year old Helga Holsten, who died in September of last year.

Bob Andelman, Holsten’s son-in-law, was shocked that someone would steal Holsten’s identity to obtain a loan. He was even more shocked, according to the St. Petersburg Times, at how poorly executed the fraud was.

“They put a picture of a young blond woman onto my mother-in-law’s photo ID,” Andelman said. “But they left all the other information the same,” including the birth year which still read 1928.

Besides how shoddily the fraud was executed, Andelman was surprised that no one spotted the fraud, despite inconsistencies with the photo ID and other documentation.

“All of the document work was incredibly sloppy,” Andelman said. “My mother-in-law’s name was written differently on every piece of paper,” he said. Anyone could have spotted that something was wrong with the applications, or almost anyone, he speculated.

Sallie Mae finally removed the loan from his mother-in-law’s credit report, Adelman said, after several months of working with the lender to resolve the situation.

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Student Applies for Student Loan, Credit Card in Other Students’ Names

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:01:00 GMT

A senior at Stony Brook University in New York has been arrested and charged with one count of first-degree identity theft for allegedly stealing the personal information of at least two students and using that information to apply for a student loan and a credit card, Newsday reports (“Stony Brook: Student Worker Faces Identity Theft Charges,” Jan. 28, 2009).

The student, Oluwole Owoseni, who worked at the school’s career center and the student affairs office, may have also accessed the information of other students, although police say “the security of the school’s student database was not breached and the number of students affected is very small.”

Owoseni, using another student’s personal information, allegedly applied and was approved for a student loan online. The identity theft was discovered after the student whose identity was used for the loan application reported the fraud to police.

Owoseni was also charged with two counts of third-degree unlawful possession of personal identifiers and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

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Women Arrested for Trying to Fraudulently Bilk Lenders of $2.2 Million in Student Loans

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:04:00 GMT

Five Seattle women in a mother-daughter bank fraud ring have been arrested for allegedly submitting bogus loan applications and obtaining $690,000 in student loans, “which they used for their own benefit and purposes,” according to an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (“5 Women Arrested in $690,000 Student Loan Scam,” June 10, 2008).

The women, who submitted student loan applications worth about $2.2 million, allegedly stole the identities of people with names similar to their own and used those names as co-signers on loan applications, Joe Velling of the Social Security Administration Inspector General’s Office told the newspaper.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman Barbosa said the fraud ring was discovered after one of the victims alerted authorities to discrepancies on her credit report.

“You don’t know about this (fraudulent) loan until you refinance a home or try to make a major purchase,” Barbosa said. “Suddenly you have a $40,000 student loan that you are the co-signer of.”

Authorities do not know how the fraud cases were not discovered sooner during the process schools follow to verify student loan applicants’ enrollment.

If found guilty, the women face up to 30 years in prison and a $1-million fine on the bank fraud charges. They also face an additional two years in prison and a $250,000 fine in the identity theft charges.

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