Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger
Jason Truxel was denied a mortgage because of bad credit. He did not know that its credit ratings were low, so he shot her credit reports. He discovered a huge amount of debt, and the accounts he had never opened. Such account showed a credit card had been opened in his name when he was 13. Jason found out the hard way that was a victim of child identity theft. When Jason was a child, his father was convicted of credit card fraud. Then he went to his father's house and found a stack of credit cards with his name on them in a dresser drawer. When confronted, Jason's father said that Jason would never be able to prove anything. This is a bad father, if I ever heard one.
Diamond Daye is 11 years old. It goes by the same problem. Except his mother is the identity thief. She is 31, and has thousands of rental and cell phone and cable bills.
the child's identity theft is a growing problem. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that there are 500,000 new victims each year. The culprits are often parents, as they have direct access to the personal information of their children. irresponsible parents who screwed up their own credit credit in the names of their children, once tehy discover how easy it is. All the needs of a parent is the social security number of a child, and the fun begins. Creditors often fail to verify the age of the applicant and simply accept the application. Children rarely discover they are victims of identity theft until they are adults, and are denied credit or employment because of their negative credit history. Sometimes the custodial parent discovers that his ed committed identity theft when the bill collection notice begin to happen.
There is not much a person can do to prevent identity theft of children, other than to ask regularly alerts of fraud and ensure the credit has not was issued under the name of your child.
To you and protect your children, you must define a credit freeze or fraud alerts defined in your names and your children. This provides an extra layer of protection, and in most cases, prevent the opening of new credit. You should also consider making an investment in identity theft protection. Because when all else fails, you always have someone watching your back.
Robert Siciliano, theft speaker identity, discusses the availability of Social Security numbers on Fox News .
Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an expert on identity theft, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 and start-up companies as a consultant on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. the thoughts and advice of Siciliano on all these issues often appear in both television and print media news, including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of safety training as a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on high alert; How to take control of your personal safety and to prevent fraud . He also established a partnership with Uni-Ball to help raise awareness of the growing threat of identity theft and provide tips on how you can protect yourself.