Child identity theft nightmare

Posted by Robert Siciliano on July 27th, 2009

Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger

Jason Truxel was denied a mortgage because of bad credit. He had no idea that his credit scores were low, so he pulled his credit reports. He discovered a tremendous amount of debt, and accounts he had never opened. One such account showed that a credit card had been opened in his name when he was 13 years old. Jason found out the hard way that he was a victim of child identity theft. When Jason was a child, his father was convicted of credit card fraud. So 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 dad said that Jason would never be able to prove anything. That's a bad dad, if I've ever heard of one.

Diamond Daye is 11 years old. He's going through the same problem. Except his mother is the identity thief. She's a 31, and owes thousands in rent and cell phone and cable bills.

Child identity theft is a growing problem. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that there are 500,000 new victims every year. The culprits are often parents, since they have direct access to their kids' personal information. Irresponsible parents who have screwed up their own credit apply for credit in their childrens' names, once tehy discover how easy it is. All a parent needs is a child's Social Security number, and the fun begins. Creditors often fail to verify the applicant's age, and simply accepts the application. Children rarely discover that 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 or her ed committed identity theft when the bill collector notices begin to arrive.

There's not much a person can do to prevent child identity theft, other than regularly requesting fraud alerts and ensuring the credit hasn't been issued under your child's name.

In order to protect yourself and your children, you should set a credit freeze, or set fraud alerts in your and your childrens' names. This provides an extra layer of protection, and in most cases, prevents the opening of new credit. You should also consider making an investment in identity theft protection. Because when all else fails, you'll still have someone watching your back.

Robert Siciliano, identity theft speaker, discusses the availability of Social Security numbers on Fox News.

Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com , an identity theft expert, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 companies and startups as an advisor on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. Siciliano's thoughts and advice on all these matters appear often in both the televised and print news media including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of security training as a member of the American Society of Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on High Alert; How to take control of your personal security and prevent fraud. He's also partnered with Uni-Ball to help raise awareness about the growing threat of identity theft and to provide tips on how you can protect yourself.