Protecting Your Children's Identity

Watching your children grow into their own identities can be one of life's best joys... Or, if an identity thief has been looming about, one of life's biggest nightmares. With the advent of identity theft, keeping your children safe has become even more challenging (and more important) than ever before.

Along with other monsters, identity thieves have a long history of preying on children. The reason children make such easy targets is because identity thieves can easily steal and misuse a child's Social Security number for long periods of time - even years - before anyone has a chance to notice.

More recently, new thieves disguised as businesses have come about that help identity thieves gain access to your child's Social Security number. They have begin actively selling Social Security numbers of children to people looking to buy a fresh start or clean slate for their own credit problems. These businesses are able to elude law enforcement and continue their business because of fine print and elaborate wording, such as calling these numbers "Credit Privacy Numbers" or CPN rather than a Social Security Number.

These businesses can leave behind two victims - the child who's Social Security number has been sold and, subsequently, misused; and the person looking to rebuild their credit who mistakenly purchased someone else's Social Security number. However, it's much more common that a thief will purchase the Credit Privacy Number over an honest person looking to rebuild their credit. And more often than not, once that CPN has been flagged and is no longer of use, the thief drops the Social Security number and purchases another one.

So, how easy is it to get a new Credit Privacy Number?

Finding a business that sells CPNs is easier than you might think. There are several of them available - mostly online but there are also several available in person. Steve Rhode recently uncovered a CPN scam that was running about the popular site Craig's List and found that in less than 60 seconds he could have a new, illegal CPN for under $100.

Why Children's Social Security Numbers?

When a child is assigned his or her Social Security number, it's a new number with no history attached to it. That's because the child hasn't yet tried to apply for or use credit, opened any new accounts, or made any of the mistakes that so many adults make. Their Social Security numbers are completely clean - making any credit scores attached to these Social Security numbers equally clean.

Plus... Because children aren't using their Social Security numbers, they aren't monitoring their credit reports, credit scores or personal data. This means that an identity thief could potentially use the child's identity and Social Security number for years before anyone notices that something is wrong. Then when the child begins using his or her Social Security number for their own purposes, they are left with years' worth of abuse and mess to clean up.

One More Reason Thieves target Children's Social Security numbers... Poor Security at the Schools.

Many schools today use a child's Social Security number as a way of identifying that child in their own system. Unfortunately, as school budgets continue to suffer, most of the schools today don't have the technology or the money it takes to protect their database full of young Social Security numbers. They are forced to rely on the primitive security software found on a bought computer that was, likely, built by the lowest bidder without added regard for data safety or security.

But how do Thieves get the Social Security numbers in the first place?

Thieves use everything from web-crawling software, unwitting freelance professionals doing "Internet Research" and other data collection techniques to grab Social Security numbers from web sites around the world. You might be surprised at just how many web sites still have Social Security numbers posted online and without protection from encryption or anti-harvesting software at all. Most of the time, this is a result of either lax security or user error.

Are you Feeling the pangs of Vulnerability yet?

Do you know how safe your children are from identity thieves?

Here are just a few ways that you can help protect your child's identity:

• Check their credit status at all three credit bureaus to see if any credit report has been issued under their Social Security number
• If there is no credit report issued under your child's Social Security number, then identity thieves have not yet used or sold their Social Security number. Continue checking regularly to make sure it stays unused
• If there is a credit report issued under your child's Social Security number, then there is a very high chance that your child's Social Security number has been compromised in some way. Begin working immediately to correct and remove the credit report
• Talk to your children about identity theft, credit reports, and credit scores. Even if they don't know what their Social Security number is yet, start teaching them to use caution before revealing any of their personal information to anyone.