Today, almost everybody knows what identity theft in the context of credit cards is. Due to this, literatures also abound in relation to how individuals may protect themselves from the crime of identity theft.
It cannot be denied however that with practices of parents getting social security numbers for their children, the latter have become the new targets of identity theft. Protecting the child’s identity ultimately rests on a parent’s effort in this case.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports that every year, five percent (5%) of all cases of identity theft involve children. There are more than 500,000 cases of child identity theft according to the Identity Theft resource Center, half of this number have children which are six years old and under as the victims.
Children are very likely targets because they have no previous records yet and thus with very ideal records for individuals who want to evade authorities due to their serious financial issues. Illegal immigrants in the US also find cause in using child identities to stay and find employment in the country.
The thieves can be anyone exposed to the children’s personal information. With getting a child’s Social Security Number as their objective, they are always ready to disperse in institutions or random places containing children’s identity information. Worse, these places may not even have enough security measures to protect a child’s identity information, this is the scenario where the thieves are almost always successful.
With all kinds of people from—volunteers and employees alike to total strangers—able to access the following records in different places, security of the child’s identity cannot be guaranteed:
- Daycare and school facilities registration
- Youth organizations registration (Cub Scouts, Girls Scouts, etc…)
- Sports Camps or Sports Teams registration
- Child’s dentist or doctor’s office documents and medical records
- Child’s medical insurance applications
Since there is no law prohibiting any organization or individual from
asking for a child’s Social Security Number. Once the important information is obtained, the thieves will use the children’s names Social Security Numbers to apply for credit. The thieves will also change the addresses. Even if the age of the credit applicant is revealed with the credit application’s checking mechanisms, the screening process cannot determine that there is already a registered individual under the same SSN.
A parent’s knowledge of their children’s information is crucial in making sure that the thieves will not have access to a child’s identity through the name and Social Security Number.
Parents should start running their children’s credit report at least twice every year. Making sure that “no credit found” is always indicated until the parent decides to open an account for his her child about it all. Should a parent find out about existing credit in his or her child’s account, identity theft might have been committed.
The parent may also include the child’s credit to his or her own monitoring service. This will help secure a SSN from third parties requesting them. The SSN should only be given in extremely important but authorized events.
