Stealing Candy from a Baby – Child ID Theft
It’s as easy as stealing candy from a baby. With the government requiring families to get social security cards on their children; there has been an alarming rise in infant and child identity theft.
The theft is not usually reported for years until the child files for some type of credit, school loans or recieves a notice from the IRS or some other agency for some misdeed.
The FTC reports about 5% of all ID theft is reported by children under 18 and the number is growing. As more parents learn how to check their children’s identity, the numbers will rise. Their identity’s are used to open credit card, obtain driver’s license, and employment.
I was speaking to a woman in the HR department at the zoo in Phoenix and she told me a parent had called complaining that one of her employees had been using her childs social security number for employment. He was fired. Imagine the mothers surprise when the IRS denied her using the child as a deduction on her return because they came calling for not filing a tax return for her 9 year old for his employment at the zoo.needed to file their own return for income reported by the zoo.
Imagine the surprise of an 18 year old applying for a student loan to discover is was denied because he had already defaulted on his existing student loans. The 18 year was just starting school and had no student loans… but his identity thief did!
Shiloh Puckett, a 4th grader already has quite a history. A credit history, that is. Shiloh has over 17 credit cards, racked up thousands of dollars on her credits cards and been approved for a $42,000 loan. She is deep in debt and has been since she was just five. Her identity thief was caught and sentenced to prison… it was her own mother.
The Identity Theft Resource Center reports family members as being involved in more than half of the child identity theft cases reported in the United States last year.
So how are criminals able to get credit in your child’s name. One issue is that credit card companies do not do any sort of age qualification of applicants. They application may ask for the date of birth, but there is no way to verify it and that becomes the “official age” for credit purposes and can sit on the child’s credit report for years until someone corrects the misinformation.
Keeping your child’s information safe.
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You should check your child’s credit report. The govenment requires a FREE credit report annually you have 3 credit reporting agency’s to check so you can check a different agency every 4 months for no cost.
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Be careful who you give your childs birth certificate to, schools, athletic programs. Ask why they need a copy and how will it be stored.
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Do not carry your child’s social security card in your wallet or any other personal identifying information. Store in a locked and secure place.
To learn more about protecting your identity visit http://www.myidentitythief.com/
Debbi Carroll, Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist, AmeriPlan USA
http://www.facebook.com/debbicarroll
