Contact: Judy Iannaccone

Director, Communications February 8, 2005

Phone: (714) 480-7503 For Immediate Release

E-mail:

Santiago Canyon College Offers Identity Theft Seminar on February 12

(Santa Ana) – The average identity theft victim spends about 200 hours trying to repair the damage to his or her name and credit. Identity theft is such a prevalent problem that many companies even offer identity theft coverage to their employees to reduce the amount of time lost should they becomes victims. As a growing number of people become concerned about their own identity being stolen, Santiago Canyon College’s Community Services program is offering an identity theft seminar to help alleviate these concerns.

The identity theft seminar will be held on Saturday, February 12, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at Santiago Canyon College, 8045 East Chapman Avenue, room B-211 in Orange. The fee for the seminar is $65 and a $20 material fee is payable in class. Registration is required and may be made online at www.rsccd.org/cms or by calling (714) 628-4960.

The seminar will be led by a representative of Los Angeles-based Technology Crime Institute (TCI), which was created to teach people and organizations how to protect their technological and personal assets from becoming the next statistic.

“Identity theft has been referred to as the crime of the new millennium and its

impact can be devastating,” said Bill Fisher, TCI executive director. “We hope that after

taking this workshop people will know how to protect themselves and their personal information

by learning about the things they may do unconsciously that may put them at risk.”

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Attendees of the seminar will learn what identity theft is, how it occurs, and different prevention strategies. The materials that will be provided include “The Identity Prevention Guide” which contains reproducible forms that victims can use to dispute charges and request credit reports.

Santiago Canyon College and Santa Ana College are public community colleges of Rancho Santiago Community College District, which serves the residents of Anaheim Hills, Garden Grove, Irvine, Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin and Villa Park. Both colleges provide education for academic transfer and careers, courses for personal and professional development, and customized training for business and industry.

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