Protecting Our Children and Their Identity

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The credit reporting bureaus don’t record information on minors under the age of fourteen. The steps below are free and an excellent way to make sure your child’s credit and identity hasn’t been compromised. In the underground world of stolen social security numbers and birth certificates they often sell for as much as one thousand dollars each on the streets. Children’s social security numbers are becoming popular because it’s often years before someone checks the social security number for activity. This makes it easy for people to steal a child’s identity for several years without detection and maintain a working status within the United States.

1. Run a credit report on your child. You are legally entitled to one free credit check per year with each of the three major credit reporting agencies.
2. If your child's credit report shows unauthorized activity, send a letter to each credit bureau to notify them your child is a minor, listing the fraudulent entries. Request they place an initial fraud alert in your child's file to prevent an impostor from opening anymore accounts in your child's name.
3. Report the identity theft to the local police department. You will need a copy of a police report to show creditors and to request a long term fraud alert on your child's credit report.
4. Report the identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission. (Their link is on our resource page.)
5. Contact all the creditors listed on your child's credit report to let them know about the identity theft.
   
   
   

Pay attention to “clues” indicating your child’s identity has been stolen. In law enforcement, we’ve discovered some of the most common “clues” are over looked by parents.

1. If your child's name appears on your caller I.D. when a family member calls you, it's a red flag that something's wrong. Your family member may have used your child's name to open up a telephone account.
2. When you take your teenager to get a driver's license and the MVD agent asks, "What happened to the other one?" If someone has obtained a driver's license in your child's name notify the MVD supervisor and request a driver’s history report. Your child may have citations in courts that aren’t theirs. File a police report.
3. When your teenager opens up a bank account and you find that someone else has been bouncing checks with your child's name on them, you'll need to follow up and file a police report and run a credit check.
4. When you file your taxes, if they get returned because someone else has used your child's social security number follow it up with a credit check.
5. Watch for pre-approved offers of credit in your child’s name. According to the identity theft resource center, child identity theft isn't typically discovered for years until after your child applies for a credit card or a driver's license. If you think your child's identity has been stolen, check with the free credit reporting agencies and order a copy of their credit history. If there's fraudulent information on the credit report, or if accounts have been opened in your child's name, file a police report. Once the police report is filed contact the three credit reporting bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, and request they place a freeze on your child's credit history.