About Us
Get the latest credit tips & advice from our hand-picked team of credit experts. Each of them has been in your shoes and can provide you with first hand knowledge on how to take control of your credit.

• Baby Boomers
• Celebs & Credit
• Credit Bloopers
• Credit Nightmares
• Credit Tips
• Married with Children
• Newlyweds
• Recent College Grads
• Retirement
• Starting Out

• Henry B.
• Gene M.
• Sophie H.
• Michael S.
• Desiree B.
• Allie P.
• Lisa N.
• Sally S.
• Andy B.
• Meredith K.

Identity Theft of Children Posted by: Henry B. | May 01,2008

Print E-mail Del.icio.us Digg

You might never have though about ordering up a credit report for your child.  After all, he or she doesn’t have any credit accounts yet, so what exactly is going to go on a credit report?  The answer is a whole lot of fraudulent activity.  The fact is that identity theft of children is on the rise.  All identity thieves need is a social security number and the age of the person does not necessarily matter.   You might be thinking: I thought that only people over 18 could open up a credit account.  While that’s the law, that’s not often how it happens.  There are countless reports of children receiving pre-approved credit card offers in the mail.  Parents usually laugh it off and throw the offer in the garbage.  If you were to fill out such an application, you might be surprised, and appalled, that a young child gets offered a full-fledged credit card.   Credit card issuers just aren’t as conscientious as they should be about processing applications and other material.  I’ve heard of someone paying a bill with a cash advance check that was ripped apart and then taped together.  If nothing else displays criminal intent, this should.  Mistakes like this happen, so don’t just assume your child is free from identity predators.   So what can you do.  Basically, all of the things you do to protect your own identity.  Don’t give out your child’s social security number to anyone.  Make sure your child knows this is important as well. Order a credit report to make sure that there has been no fraudulent activity.  While monthly credit monitoring is not as necessary with a child, yearly free credit reports are useful.   Put a block on credit card offers – these are rare for children, but they should definitely not be laughed off.  These offers could be a clear signal that the child’s social security number has been used to open credit accounts.   Don’t wait until the child is over 18 to take these precautions.  When a child is older, he or she may be rejected for student loans, car loans, and credit cards because of this earlier fraudulent activity.  Comments Name: Email:  do not notifynotify Website: Title: Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.