Child identities stolen by those who they trust the most

Identity thieves have zeroed in on the most vulnerable. New research shows that identity thieves are focusing increasingly on children because parents do not pay attention and the theft can go undetected for years.

All about child identity theft

Thousands of kids and their families are being victimized by identity theft and thousands more are at risk, according to a report by Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab cybersecurity research center. There were 42,232 children in the report looked at from the 2009-10 Debix AllClear ID Protection Network scan where parents were told about compromised child IDs. The Debix AllClear ID data showed 4,311 of the children, a little more than 10 percent, had their Social Security numbers in use by identity thieves. That’s a child identity theft rate 51 times higher than the 0.2 percent of United States adults targeted by identity thieves, based on 663 attacks against 347,362 adults listed in Debix AllClear ID. The youngest it ever got was a five month old. The identity was stolen still. There were 42 open accounts in Arizona that a 17 year old girl found out she had. In all of these charge cards, car loans and mortgages, she owed $725,000 in debt. There were eight pe! ople that had her Social Security number. In Kentucky, a 14 year old boy found out there was a foreclosure on his credit. It was from 10 years earlier too.

Friendly fraud victimizes

Child identity theft appears to be coming to a head after the seeds were planted in early 1980s. All kids were given Social Security numbers back then by the Social Security Administration by the Internal Revenue Service. Everyone with access to the Social Security numbers would typically abuse them. Children quickly became victims of this. Javelin Strategy and Research reported that there were several “friendly fraud” cases in 2010. That was 30 percent of identity theft cases. In credit checks, age isn’t verified. This makes it easier for a thief to get a credit card, create accounts and even take out loans. The Identity Theft Resource Center helped a young male trying to work on his credit. Apparently his father had, years ago, stolen his identity and damaged his credit beyond repair.

Figuring out child identity theft

The dangers in sharing information on the internet and not being private should be taught to every child according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. All personal information, including Social Security numbers and birth certificates, should be kept in a secure place. If mail arrives in the child’s name, that’s a warning sign that a credit file has been opened. If you are a parent, gets a-hold of the major credit bureaus. Get a credit rating for the child. Sometimes there is no credit report. That is probably good for child. There needs to be a security alert filed with Equifax, TransUnion and Experian if there is a credit report. File a police report using the credit reports as evidence. The credit agencies are required to remove the credit rating issues within 30 days after a police report listing the fraudulent accounts.

Information from

Forbes

blogs.forbes.com/moneybuilder/2011/03/31/protecting-your-child-from-identity-theft/

Atlanta Journal Constitution

ajc.com/news/child-identity-theft-increases-572552.html

Wallet Pop

walletpop.com/2011/04/05/report-as-child-id-theft-grows-rapidly-consider-these-precauti/