Child Identity Theft

Child Identity Theft is the act of using a child’s personal information to commit identity theft. Children are tempting targets for identity theft because they often have no credit history, and this makes them a clean slate to anyone who wants to start over with their credit history. Children also tend to be completely unaware that their identity has been stolen for longer than adults, if it is stolen before they start kindergarten, a thief could have over ten years of abusing the identity before the child discovers the theft. The theft can be committed by strangers, but sometimes the parents or other adults who know the child steal the identity for something essential like paying the electric bill and then find it difficult to give up abusing the child’s identity. According to ID Analytics, “More than 140,000 children are victims of identity theft each year”.

The social security numbers of people thirty years of age and under are easier to guess because of a government program from 1987 that bases social security numbers off of when and where someone was born. Victims could be turned down for student loans, mortgages, government benefits, or get calls from collection services. Recovering from years of having credit abused may never be fully resolved. http://www.wsj.com/video/is-your-child-a-target-for-identity-theft/F166B10F-D199-4EFB-834D-EA7BB65F653C.html

Related Topics: Data Tracking | Privacy | History | Personal Experiences