Soon after, he learned that he had two names listed under his Social Security number and a sordid credit history.
"I had no idea what to do," recalls Friesen, a University of Colorado sophomore, who now travels around the country trying to educate other students about the risks of identity theft.
Of the more than 255,000 identity theft complaints filed with the US Federal Trade Commission in 2005, 5 percent involved people under age 18 - up from 3 percent in 2003 - making that demographic the fastest-growing target for identity thieves.
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) in San Diego has had an "untold increase" in the number of calls and e-mails from 17-, 18-, and 19-year-olds, says Linda Foley, the group's executive director.
Part of the reason is that in 1989, the Social Security Administration implemented the "Enumeration at Birth" program, letting parents automatically register for an infant's Social Security number as part of the birth registry paperwork.
Many students don't realize that they can tell college administrators not to post or otherwise give out their personal information.
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