ID thieves target children's Social Security numbers

February 03, 2011|by Cara Restelli, KY3 News | crestelli@ky3.com

BRANSON, Mo. -- Identity theft continues to be an enforcement nightmare in this country. New figures show the arrest rate for ID theft crimes is under 5 percent. Also, the victims are getting younger and younger.

Your child is born, he opens his eyes, you give him a name and he gets a Social Security number. Other than your yearly tax return and the rare bank account you open in his name, that Social Security number sits around for 18 years with no purpose, except to ID thieves.

"It started in the adult world and now it's worked its way into the children's world," said Curt Gaddis, owner of Pre-paid Legal Services, a company that offers identity theft protection products.

While no one is fully protected, children are particularly vunerable to this growing crime. Arwen Parsons, 7, of Branson certainly surprised her parents when she moved to Arizona three years ago and got an apartment complete with utilities, phone and direct TV. Of course, it wasn't she who did it but an ID thief.

"With credit with kids, people will go out and apply for things in their name and they don't realize it. They're not checking for those things," said Gaddis.

The Parsonses realized it when a collection agency called looking for an overdue payment.

"I'm sure most people think it will never happen to them, let alone their kid," said Arwen's dad, Philip Parsons.

Philip, like many parents, checked his own credit report once a year, but never thought to check his daughters' reports - until now.

"Every year I check our credit but I check theirs as well," he said.

It's become such a problem that Gaddis' company has begun offering an ID theft protection product specifically for kids.

"They monitor it to make sure no credit is being opened on a daily basis," he said.

It's a useful tool since, he says, as much as you try to protect your personal information and that of your kids, you're always at risk.

"You may be great with your records but someone else in a company, place or school or who-knows-where may have lost something or left something lying out," said Gaddis.

Parsons still doesn't know how the ID thieves got his daughter's information and probably never will. All he does know is he'll do all he can to stop it from happening again.

The credit monitoring service through Pre-paid Legal Services is $13.95 a month for two adults and up to four kids. While a valuable resource, if you can't afford the monthly commitment, you should at least check your child's credit report once year. You can get a yearly copy for free here. And by check it, that means make sure one doesn't exist. If your child has never had a job or applied for credit, he or she should have no file. If there is one, there's a good chance some kind of fraud occurred.

|

|

|