Educate Girls and Reduce ID Theft Risk

Arguably , if you better educate anyone about risk, you reduce the potential harm. So why focus on girls? Pick the highest risk group, and generate exponentially greater potential payoff is why. One recent study found women to be 26 percent more likely to be victims of identity theft and fraud than men. (Javelin Strategy & Research’s, 2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report, http://www.mybackgroundcheck.com/blog/post/2009/02/Why-Women-Suffer-More-Identity-Theft-and-Fraud-than-Men.aspx.)
That same study attributes the results to women making purchases more frequently “in-person,” as opposed to online, than men, and to their being three times more likely to report being a victim than men!
In Greg Mortenson’s book Stones Into Schools (the sequel to #1 bestseller Three Cups of Tea), wherein it’s undertaken to build schools for girls in outlying parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, it’s noted that the education of girls leads to increased income for not only the girls themselves but for their entire nation.
Knowing how identity theft can lead to losing the next most valuable asset after one’s health, it’s really not that far of a cry to see that focusing on girls’ education can not only improve basics like income level and health, but the ability to keep what is so hard gotten, like one’s identiy. Identity theft need not disproportionately impact women in any part of the globe when education can be a potential cure.
Sue B Martines, J.D.