According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the number of identity theft complaints involving Americans 18 or younger has nearly doubled over the past three years.
The FTC says identity thieves are now targeting kids because it’s easy.
Since children have no credit history, they have “clean†records. In addition, the crime can be hidden for years since no one usually knows a child’s identity has been stolen until they apply for loans or credit cards when they reach 18.
As reported by consumeraffairs.com, all an identity thief needs in order to take on the identity of a child is a Social Security number, which almost all children have for their parents’ tax reporting purposes.
The FTC urges parents to guard their children’s social security numbers as closely as they would any of their own private financial information.
In order to keep an eye out for any suspicious charges or billing, parents should look out for billing collection notices in a child’s name, or anything that would indicate that transactions are being made with a child’s information.
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