May 2, 2007

NEWS: Junior ID Theft Victim Speaks Out

By the time he was seven years old, Zach Friesen was $40,000 in debt, and the rightful owner of a houseboat he’d never seen. Without even getting past the second grade, Friesen already held the dubious distinction of having had his identity stolen and used in the perpetration of fraud. Of course, he didn’t realize it at the time. The issue of the houseboat – purchased by a scam artist with a loan taken out in Friesen’s name, then defaulted upon – didn’t emerge until a full decade later, when Friesen applied for his first job at the age of seventeen. He was pinged for having bad credit, and denied the position. To this day, Friesen has no idea who stole his identity, or how they pulled it off.

But Friesen, now twenty-one, is not taking the matter sitting down. He’s touring a circuit of high schools in his home state of Colorado, speaking to students about their very real vulnerability to similar types of crime. Friesen’s lectures revolve around how teens can best educate themselves against identity theft to prevent it happening in the first place, as they are its prime potential victims. Friesen highlighted the reasons for this fact: teens are less likely to check their credit reports frequently (if ever), and generally have a totally clear line of credit. In other words, they are a regular tabula rasa for thieves.

Qwest is sponsoring Friesen’s talks. Friesen says that, to this day, she still has flags on his credit that he needs to explain to any and all parties pulling it for any reason. His family spent $1,200 and the better part of six years clearing his name. And he doesn’t want it to happen to anyone so young, ever again.


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