How to avoid identity theft and online scams and safely navigate social networking sites was the topic of the day recently when the $1.2 billion TruMark Financial Credit Union of Trevose, Pa., sent a couple staffers to address more than 300 high school students.
Linda Volz, fraud crimes investigator, and Jason Cooper, information technology specialist, met the students at Bucks County Community College, where the students were participating in a Future Business Leaders Association conference.
Volz cautioned against such scams as selling items where the buyer sends an overpayment and requests the seller to wire the extra money back to them. "When the buyer asks you to wire money back, you can be sure it's a scam. People ignore the Golden Rule-if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true," said Volz.
Cooper advised students never to disclose personal information such as birth date, address or social security number, because fraudsters can easily use such information to turn the student in a victim of identity theft.
