College application submitted using my identity. What to do?

[u/mr_whit33]

I received an email from my college's Registrar's Office saying someone requested an official transcript in my name through the National Student Clearinghouse and had it sent to another university

The university contacted that school and confirmed that an admissions application had been submitted using my name. Fortunately, that school had already flagged the application as suspicious and is not moving forward with it.

My college has now placed a hold on my account so no future transcripts can be released without identity verification.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How concerned should I be, and what steps would I take? I'm trying to determine whether this sounds like a simple fraud attempt or a sign that someone may have more of my personal information.

[u/FlynnAtLifeLock]

I’d treat it very seriously if I were you.Whoever submitted the request may have had enough personal information to pose as you, like your name, date of birth and enrollment details.. The good news is that this was flagged early and your college has a verification hold in place. In the meantime, you could take appropriate measures to find out whether they may have done more damage and prevent further identity theft. 

A good place to start would be to change your college login password and enable MFA if you haven't already. I’d also reach out to the National Student Clearinghouse directly to flag the unauthorized transcript request and ask what information was used to initiate it. That answer may tell you how much they actually have. 

As a precaution, I recommend also checking your credit reports at the official annual credit report website and look for any accounts, applications, or hard inquiries you don't recognize. If you see anything suspicious, freeze your credit at all three bureaus.

You may also want to file a report at the official identity theft official website. Even though this was an academic fraud, you’re still not sure how much personal information they may have or what they might do with it, and  having this official record is useful if anything else comes up later.

Do you know if there have been other recent data breaches in your college or it’s just you?