Protecting Your Child’s Identity

A form of identity theft that many do not even realize is a risk, is the identities of your children.  Many thieves are turning to stealing the identity of children, as most parents don’t bother checking the credit reports of their 6 year old.  This gives the thieves free range to demolish their credit by taking out loan after loan, as well as opening fraudulent credit card accounts.

These thieves are harder to catch, because you just don’t expect someone to steal a child’s identity, because of their young age.  But realistically, this happens all the time.  Unfortunately, because child ID theft isn’t often thought about, your children could be at greater risk.

Try checking up on your children.  Monitor their social networking use on sites like Facebook and Twitter, and ensure that they know not to give out too much personal information.  It’s also good to check up on them to make sure nothing revealing is accidentally posted.  Social networking is a haven for ID thieves, but is perfectly safe as long as you are careful about the info you choose to put out there.

Treat sensitive documents for your child the same as you would for yourself.  Any document that has their personal info, such as name and address, or social security number, needs to be shredded.  You have to destroy them, so that a thief can’t take advantage of the information.

Pay attention to the mail that your child receives as well.  If you find they are getting a lot of junk mail, from catalogs to offers from banks, credit cards, or cell phone companies, be suspicious.  Usually catalogs only come to those that have ordered from stores or websites in the past.  Banks and credit card companies only make offers to people that have inquired about, or that have opened credit card accounts in the past.