Miseducation of the Negro

Previous studies conducted by Jim Stickley, co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of TraceSecurity Inc., proved that teens put personal information such as names, birth dates, and social security numbers on the web without any caution. Jim Stickley created a website where people could download free music. This website was counterfeit and was designed as a test site to see how many people would actually visit the site and create an account. In order to download the music, a user would have to create an account providing their first name, last name, home address, and a valid email address (Stickley, 2009. p. 66). To see how much personal information he could get people to provide, the website also required that users enter their birthdates and social security numbers. Stickley created a false account under the assumed identity of a fifteen year old boy where he visited blogs, chat rooms, and social networks to promote the website. Over the three day period that the website was functional, Stickley was able to obtain 25 social security numbers (Stickley, 2009. p. 66). This was a prime example of how easy it was for a random individual to create an opportunity to influence any young uniformed person to put personal information on the Web. Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are becoming a growing pool of valuable information that at some point thieves may consider more valuable than a credit report (Yip, 2008). In the article, "Student and non-student perceptions and awareness of identity theft" by John Winterdyk and Nikki Thompson, they surveyed 360 college/university students and 106 non-students on the level of knowledge about five primary types of fraud: credit card fraud, telecommunications fraud, phone or utility fraud, bank fraud, and fraudulent loans (p. 9). Students and adult non-students were questioned about risky practices regarding giving out personal information in ways that could increase their risk of victimization. The results were that this group reviewed bank statements and credit card statements less, made purchases over the Internet with and without solicitation more often, and contacted organizations that dealt with security less (Winterdyk & Thompson, 2008, p. 12-13).