Identity thieves know no boundaries.
They even go after one of the most vulnerable groups: children."Children are not in any condition to protect themselves," said Adam Levin, chairman and co-founder of Identity Theft 911, which provides identity-theft products and helps victims of the crime. "It's up to their parents."
Children are especially enticing targets for identity-theft crooks because it can take years before the crime is discovered.
"Children, while it doesn't occur often, are probably the most vulnerable just because if someone steals my child's identity, they can use that for 10 to 15 years before they [the child] apply for a loan and they find that their credit is really not good," said Thomas Harkins, chief strategy officer for Secure Identity Systems in Nashville.
Statistics on child identity theft are hard to pin down.
"We don't ask for age in our identity-theft surveys," said Claudia Bourne Farrell, spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission. "Our self-reported, anecdotal data indicates that about 5 percent of the complaints last year were for people 18 and under."
The number of child identity thefts reported may be lower than the actual number because "many people find out after they're over the age of 18 that they were victims of identity theft when they were under 18," Mr. Levin said.
"The conventional wisdom is that it's about 500,000 people a year who are children who become victims of identity theft," he said.
The most common way child identity theft occurs is when the child's Social Security number is used to establish new lines of credit.
"What most people do not understand is that credit issuers may not have a way to verify the age of the applicant," said Linda Foley, co-executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego. "The information on the application is typically taken at face value. This is particularly true with telephone and Internet applications."
One clue that may indicate your child is a victim of identity theft is if he or she has a credit report. Young children typically don't have a credit report because they don't have credit.
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Posted By: Esther Pinkston
Monday, August 18th 2008 at 10:49PM
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