Family Secure Child Identity Theft

If you are working to keep your family secure, child identity theft prevention should also be included in your efforts. With diligent monitoring of your child's credit bureau files, you can save them (and you!) from unnecessary, costly and time-consuming actions to reverse the results of identity theft.

Protect your child against identity theft.

The Federal Trade Commission reports that about nine million people are victims of identity theft each year, and about five percent or 450,000 of these are children.

Children receive Social Security numbers early in life, usually at birth. The Social Security number may be included on:

• Medical records
• School records
• Sports records
• Library card records

An identity thief can use the Social Security number as the key to obtain other information about the child. Once the thief has obtained enough information to assume the child's identity, the thief can open bank accounts, apply for loans and credit cards, and create new cell phone accounts in the child's name.

The child's information can also be gathered from their credit bureau file. A child would have a credit bureau file if he or she has been added to a parent's credit card as an authorized user. Teenagers who have applied for a department store credit card or a car loan would also have a credit bureau file.

Once a child's identity is stolen, the identity thief can create, and then abuse, new financial accounts. This abuse is reported on the child's credit bureau file and can have many different types of negative impacts for the child such as:

• Inability to open a new bank account
• Turn downs for jobs, even a part time or summer job
• Difficulty getting accepted into college
• Lost and damaged credit
• Arrest warrants in the child's name

Often the theft of a child's identity is not discovered until the child applies for a car or student loan.

You can help prevent identity theft if you can stop it before it happens. You need to monitor the credit bureau reports of everyone in your family. This can take a lot of diligence and attention.

To keep your family secure, child identity theft can be monitored by using the services of one of the monitoring and credit alert systems. These systems will monitor your credit files and alert you when someone applies for credit or opens an account in your child's name. If activity is noticed, the monitoring system will send an email to you to allow you to take whatever action is necessary.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act was passed in 2003. This act, commonly called the FACT Act, established the National Fraud Alert System. This system requires creditor's to confirm the identity of any individual applying for credit if that individual has placed a fraud alert in their credit files.

Fraud alert systems also require documentation to prove that the person requesting information about a child is the parent or guardian of the child. Written proof must be provided to the monitoring system. No information can be read online – even by the parent or guardian.

There are two major monitoring systems, Family Secure and LifeLock.

Family Secure is owned by Experian, one of the major credit bureaus:

• $19.95 per month, regardless of size of family
• Free child identity monitoring
• No cost to add a spouse plus one additional adult
• Toll-free access to a representative
• Unlimited Experian credit reports and scores to help you monitor the credit reports of all family members
• A $2 million guarantee against identity theft (Note: The guarantee is not available in New York)

LifeLock combines a fraud alert system with other security benefits:

• $10 a month for each adult, plus $2.50 a month for each child. There are cost savings for annual subscriptions.
• Automatic renewal of fraud alerts every 90 days
• Free annual credit bureau reports from all major bureaus
• Credit report checks every six months
• Contacts you at any phone number you provide, so you don't have to provide your private home telephone number
• Name removal from credit card offers and mailing lists
• A $1 million guarantee against identity theft

For more information or to sign-up for a monitoring service contact:

• Family Secure – Check their website or call them at 888-609-2456 Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• LifeLock – Check their website or call them at 877-LIFELOCK, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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