Children most frequent sufferers of identity theft

Child identity theft is becoming all the rage. As a new study has shown, child identity theft is increasing because it is simple for thieves to steal data from unsuspecting parents they utilize to commit pilfering that aren’t found until their long gone. Resource for this article – Child identity theft victims hurt most often by their loved ones by MoneyBlogNewz.

Why child identity theft takes place

There have been thousands already victims of identity theft while thousands more have the risk there still. A Carnegie Mellon University CyLab cybersecurity research center report explained this clearly. 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. There were 4,311 children, a little over 10 percent, which had identity thieves steal Social Security numbers according to Debix AllClear ID data. Obviously there is issue when there is a 0.2 percent rate of U.S. adults that have their identity stolen which is 51 times lower than the child rate according to the Debix AllClear ID 663 attacks out of 347,362 adults. The youngest it ever got was a five month old. The identity was stolen nevertheless. There were 42 open accounts in Arizona that a 17 year old girl found out she had. In all of these credit cards, automobile loans and mortgages, she owed $725,000 in ! debt. Her Social Security number was connected to eight suspects. 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

After child identity theft began in the early 1980s, it has come even farther. Back then the Internal Revenue Service directed the Social Security Administration to give all kids Social Security numbers. Everyone with access to the Social Security numbers would typically abuse them. Kids easily became victims of this. In 2010, thirty percent of cases in child identity theft were “friendly fraud,” according to Javelin Strategy and Research. Because credit checks do not verify age, identity thieves can freely take out loans, get charge cards and create accounts. One young male in Florida got help after finding out his father had stolen his identity and hurt his credit years before from the Identity Theft Resource Center.

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. Keep all the significant personal information in a safe place. This should contain Social Security numbers and birth certificates. You may have mail that came in a child’s name. This could possibly be a concern that credit was opened for the child. A credit report could possibly be taken for the child from all three credit reporting agencies. Sometimes there is no credit history. That is most likely good for child. When you have a credit score for the child, file a security alert. Do this at TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. Use the credit rating to file a police report also. The fraudulent account listed in a police report will require credit states to take them off of the report. It will only take 30 days max to get this to happen.

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/