Parents should be on alert to protect their children who are prime targets of cyber thieves.
A survey conducted for the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC) discovered one in 40 households with children experienced child identity fraud. The personal information most likely to be stolen and illegally used are the child’s Social Security number and their date of birth.
The consequences are both immediate and long-term. “Bad credit or credit discrepancies can affect your child’s ability to get a job, to apply for financial aid, to join the military, (or) to pass a security check for travel,” the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) warns.
Parents can detect fraud by watching for warning signs listed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) including: your child receives credit card offers or marketing materials from banks; collection agencies contact you for unpaid debts in your child’s name; an application to open a bank account for your child is rejected due to bad credit; government benefits are denied because your child’s Social Security number is used under another person’s name; and the IRS reports that your child’s Social Security number is being utilized on another person’s tax return.
Click here to read more.
