How to Protect Your Kids from ID Theft

If it isn't bad enough that we all have to protect ourselves from problems related to identity theft, now we also have to watch out for the data on our kids. Kiplinger suggests how to protect your kids from ID theft as follows:

• Guard his or her Social Security number.
• Be careful about posting information about your child.
• Be careful with the birth certificate.
• Check your child's credit report.

Great. Now I have to check credit reports on myself, my wife, AND my kids. Ugh.

Kiplinger also lists some signs that your child's ID has been stolen as follows:

• Your child receives unsolicited credit offers.
• Your child receives letters from debt collectors.
• The IRS sends you a letter stating that the Social Security number listed for your child on your tax return (or the child's) is a duplicate number.
• The bank tells you, when you go in for the first time to open an account for your child, that an account with your child's Social Security number already has been opened.
• Your health insurer says it won't cover a procedure for your child because it covered that procedure before (even though your child never had that procedure).

Yikes! That last one sounds particularly dangerous. If your child's medical records get messed up, it could be a matter of life and death (if the doctor makes a false move based on inaccurate information.)

Fortunately, I haven't had any of these happen, so I'm assuming that my kids' identities are safe. But I think it's also likely that a stolen ID on a child can be well below the radar for YEARS because no one is really monitoring their information.

Anyone had any experience with this (having a child's ID compromised)? Any words of advice for the rest of us?

Comments

[Lurker Carl]

Put a freeze on their credit reports.

[mdb]

The birth certificate issue is one I am facing with work. Thanks to RommeyCare (ObamaCare 1.0) and MA's nation leading insurance rates, my employer is demanding copies of my marriage certificate and my children's birth certificates. The copies will then be forwarded to a third party that will verify the info. I can try to protect my kids from ID theft, but that leaves without insurance.

[March77]

Might want to look into a service like Lifelock. For under $100/year, they monitor and send alerts for credit activities done in your name. http://www.lifelock.com/landing/real/safe . I represent and use Lifelock and truly believe in teir services.

[MC]

oh man, another thing to worry about!

This wouldn't have happened in the days before the IRS mad you get social security numbers for your kids if you wanted to claim them as a dependent. Of course, kids don't need SS#'s--they aren't working. That IRS policy means there are lots of valid SS# out there that have never been used---just what a scammer likes to harvest.

There should be a way for the government to lock your infant's social security number until the kid is 18 or unless a parent dies or something that would activate social security payments. But of course, that would make too much sense...

I am puzzled why the banks, credit card agencies etc can't figure out the age of the person with the social security number--you'd think that would prevent most identity theft of kids numbers. How many children of age 5 need credit cards?

[Allison]

These are good tips! Usually we try and keep an eye over their internet sessions without trying to be too intrusive. Their papers are all securely kept under lock and key and they do have strict instructions not to fill out any forms in the malls or elsewhere without asking us first. Never hurts to be extra cautious these days.