Government Beefs Up Efforts Against Child Identity Theft

Filed under: In The News

Credit: Corbis

Carnegie Mellon University researchers scanned more than 40,000 children's identity records and found 10 percent of them tainted by Social Security numbers that were being used by at least one other person.

In response to their study, released in April, federal officials are reportedly increasing their efforts to educate parents on how to respond to identity theft involving children.

The website CreditCards.com reports officials at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have teamed up to offer a public forum called "Stolen Futures: A Forum on Child Identity Theft" on July 12, in Washington, D.C.

The event will feature representatives of government agencies, businesses, victims' advocates, nonprofits and legal service providers.

"One of the reasons children's Social Security numbers are useful to identity thieves is that they haven't been used before, so they won't come up in standard fraud databases that this number is associated with someone else," Rebecca Kuehn, assistant director in the FTC's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, tells CreditCards.com.

"Among the things we'll talk about at the forum is how this information is getting out and how better to protect it," she adds.

CreditCards.com reports identity theft involving children is hard to track because it is usually goes undiscovered for years -- until victims apply for a job or college financial aid. Suddenly, they find their names attached to foreclosures or other delinquent accounts.

Sometimes, the website reports, the thief is a clos! e family member using the child's clean record to hide his or her own tainted past.

How do you know if your child has had his or her identity stolen?

CreditCards.com reports if a debt collector calls for your child, or your child's name shows up on a pre-approved credit card, watch out.

Whatever you do, don't check repeatedly with credit reporting agencies to see whether your child has a credit file, Jay Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, tells the website, as that could actually result in a report being created and put your child at more risk.

Foley tells the website parents can take four steps to prevent the theft of their child's identity.

1. Ask questions before handing over a child's Social Security number. Why do they need the number? Who will see it? How will they protect it?

2. Don't carry your child's Social Security number in your pocket. Keep it in a safe place at home or in a safe deposit box.

3. Talk to teens before they go away to school about not giving out too much information and leaving information in the open.

4. Talk to kids about limiting their exposure on social media. Make sure they don't provide their address, phone number or full birthdates online.

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