Is Your Child In Danger Of Identity Theft?
Identity theft gets a lot of attention these days but child identity theft is hardly ever mentioned, in spite of it being one of the quickest growing areas. One of the reasons children are so vulnerable is because they usually have a social security number, but their parents rarely check their credit reports since they wouldn’t expect there to be any need. Problems can rear their ugly head years later when the child is grown up and applies for a loan or a credit card. Suddenly, the problem from years earlier shows up and their application is declined.
How Child Identity Theft Happens
Every child born in America is issued a social security number, which the parent often has to obtain for health insurance and tax purposes. In the course of taking the child to the doctor, registering for school, signing up for sports, and filing taxes, the child’s social security number is spread out all over the place. While the government is busy making changes to protect adults from identity theft, a child’s social security number is still the number one form of identification at school and at medical offices. This makes every child a target for identity theft.
Since most parents don’t ever think of checking their kids’ credit reports problems due to fraud can go undetected for years. And to compound the issue, the websites that are set up to provide free credit reports won’t do so for children - you need to send a letter by mail requesting this information for your kids.
Results Of Child Identity Theft
It’s usually several years before the problem appears, often not until the child has reached adulthood and starts applying for a loan or credit cards. And there are a couple of things that can make the problem even worse than the average identity theft. First, because these accounts were opened as new ones, and not existing ones that were taken over by fraudsters, it can be a lot more difficult to clear them from your record. Second, by the time these issues come to light the debts are long overdue and have been in collections for a number of years.
Protecting Your Child From Identity Fraud
The most effective way to protect your child is to check their credit reports on an annual basis. You should also stop giving out their social security number unless you absolutely have to. The IRS and sometimes your doctor are the only ones that have the right to ask you for it. And don’t carry your kids’ social security cards with you - memorize the number instead and leave the cards in a safe place.
Paul Wilcox on January 30th 2008 in Finance
