Share/Bookmark

Keeping Identities Safe for Kids

admin, Fri, 10/08/2010 - 13:15

Keeping IDentities Safe® for KIDS

Go to www.IDChildNow.org 

Children are increasingly the prime targets for identity thieves who seek pristine driving and credit records as well as greater opportunities for employment.
 

  1. Why are children targeted?
     
  2. Troubling Statistics

  3. Babies and Young Children: How is their information stolen? 
     
  4. Family Ties 
     
  5. Illegal Use of Social Security Numbers
     
  6. Motivations for Identity Fraud
     
  7. What Parents Should Do to Protect Their Child's Identity
     
  8. What to Do After Your Child's Identity Has Been Stolen

Why are children targeted?

Children are too young to have driving records, credit scores or felony criminal records. Identity thieves steal children’s Social Security Numbers (SSNs), birth certificates, and other personal information to hide their own identities and to sell them to stolen identity rings. A thief’s first step is often a trip to the local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) where the child’s SSN and other counterfeit or fraudulently obtained birth certificates and identity “source” documents can result in a state issued driver’s license or ID card in the child’s name but with an adult photo and age. With the new fraudulently obtained identification card, the thief can defraud employers and banks, apply for credit cards and loans, and buy firearms under the child’s name.
 
Troubling Statistics
 
In 2005, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimated that half a million children nationwide were victims of identity theft.1 In 2008, more than 20,500 identity theft complaints were filed with the FTC on behalf of individuals under the age of 19. According to the FTC, identity theft and identity fraud complaints have increased from 230,000 in 2000 to more than 1.2 million in 2008, costing Americans more than $1.8 billion annually.2
 
These children suffer very serious consequences in their lives. Many children have damaged credit records before they are old enough to walk. Sadly, they usually do not find out that they are victims of identity theft and fraud until they are teenagers or young adults. Discovery only occurs when the victim applies for a driver’s license learner permit only to find that he or she already has permits issued in his or her name, or when the victim applies for student loans to attend college and discover terrible credit histories for loans of which he or she had no knowledge!
 
In 2008, the Identity Theft Resource Center found that 17% of children affected by identity theft were less than 12 months old. Few parents think to check their 2-year-old’s credit history or criminal record, but increasingly these children are growing up with a blemished identity record that remains undetected for 15 years or more.3


Other Examples:

Ex-con from Coram racks up debt with son's identification
Grant Parpan, Web Editor North Shore Sun 

Utah Legislature: Utah looks to lock up kids' identities
Geoff Liesik Deseret News

When a parent steals your identity
Liz Pulliam Weston MSN Money
  
Babies and Young Children: How is their information stolen?
 
Criminals target children by sifting through public notices in newspapers, searching state and local birth and death notices and engaging in “dumpster diving.” In “open record” states such as Alabama and Alaska, all public records are available for inspection by anyone who wishes to visit a court house or state agency where records on citizens are kept. In addition, sometimes older court documents contain SSNs and other important information that may be used to commit identity fraud.
 
An identity thief may obtain a duplicate Social Security card that has the same number as the child’s which he or she obtained through fraudulent representation at the Social Security Administration (SSA) office. The SSA emphasizes customer service and usually does not check its own records regarding who is entitled to a duplicate. For example, the thief might claim that he or she is the parent, or he or she may obtain a counterfeit birth certificate. Now with a valid Social Security card and other forged identity documents, along with a friendly smile and a little banter, the criminal can obtain a driver’s license in a child’s name.
 
Unfortunately, it is relatively easy to forge birth certificates, as proven in a US Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report released in March of 2009 detailing how a GAO inspector was able to obtain four passports, each time using a counterfeit birth certificate.4 A criminal can forge a birth certificate under a child’s name and adjust the birth date and take over that child’s identity.
 
Family Ties
 
Shiloh Puckett had quite the credit history. She had 17 credit cards, has racked up thousands of dollars of debt, and was approved for a $42,000 loan. But, at just five years of age, Shiloh is not a shopaholic, but a victim of identity theft – perpetrated by her own mother.
 
Shiloh Puckett’s case may seem unusual because of her mother’s involvement, but family identity theft is common. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) identifies relatives or family friends as being involved in more than half of child identity theft cases reported in the US in 2004.5 The majority of evidence indicates that more often than not, people who engage in this type of crime are typically family members who have direct access to the victim’s personal data.
 
However, other sources have produced a contrasting view bolstered by recent statistics that highlight the alarming rates of illegal immigrants stealing identities of children in job related ID theft. According to a FTC study, from 2005-2007, 6% of all identity theft victims cited family members or relatives as the thief.6 If the FTC’s estimates are correct, then it is mostly strangers to the children who steal their identities for criminal purposes, including financial fraud, employment fraud, and replacing a suspended driver’s license with one in a child’s name.
 
Illegal Use of Social Security Numbers
 
Children are now usually issued SSNs early in life, often at birth. There are a number of places children’s personal information, including SSNs, may be vulnerable, including: hospital records, school records, day care centers, library cards, online social networks and immunization records.
 
Most identity thieves use SSNs as the foundation for their altered identities. About half of all stolen SSNs are from actual people, either alive or deceased. The other half is numbers not yet assigned by the SSA. Some inventive identity thieves who are also fake identity document brokers choose numbers that will soon be assigned to new born babies. In this way, many children are born into identities with existing driver’s licenses, employment records, tax obligations, debt, and/or criminal records. When the identity thief is arrested, the thief often claims he did not know the SSN belonged to a “real” person, and did not intend to commit identity theft, a federal felony offense.
 
In 2002 alone, the last year with figures released by the Social Security Administration, 9 million W-2's with incorrect SSNs landed in the suspense file, accounting for $56 billion in earnings, or about 1.5 % of total reported wages. Social Security officials do not know what fraction of the suspense file corresponds to the earnings of illegal immigrants. But they suspect that the portion is significant, said Stephen C. Goss, Social Security's chief actuary, using the agency's term for illegal immigration."Our assumption is that about three-quarters of other-than-legal immigrants pay payroll taxes," 7
 
1. In a typical case, the perpetrator loses his or her license due to habitual drunk driving, countless driving offenses, or needs to move undetected by law enforcement because of a criminal offense. A new driver’s license under a name with a clean record represents a travel document that will allow him or her to pass undetected through a traffic stop or an airport ID check.
 
2. Illegal aliens use children’s SSNs to get jobs, start businesses, and open bank accounts, such as in the following examples in Utah. In one case, a criminal told investigators he paid $100 for a boy’s SSN, but the price is typically much higher. Other victims included a 5 year old girl who supposedly traveled 80 miles to her job at a steak restaurant, an 8 year old boy who apparently owned a cleaning company and worked as a prep cook at two upscale restaurants, and an 11 year old boy who supposedly worked for an express air freight company.8 Identity document brokers who cater to criminals and illegal aliens charge significantly more for counterfeit identity documents that are sourced from genuine identities, because checks against public record systems and especially the federal Social Security Online Verification (SSOLV) and Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system will confirm the identities are indeed genuine.
 
Also in Utah, it is reported that 50,000 children have their identities being used primarily by illegal aliens to obtain jobs. Consequently, investigations in the state found that 1,626 Utah employers were paying wages to kids under the age of 13.9
 
A recent example in Utah involves Monica Zamora Vazquez, an illegal alien, who was arrested for using the identity of a child to obtain employment. She faces felony charges of identity fraud, theft by deception and possession of a forged writing device. The 11 month old victim of the crime had been denied taxpayer funded medical assistance to help pay for treatment for heart problems because Ms. Vazquez was earning income under the victim's SSN. Like millions of other illegal aliens, Vazquez had obtained a Social Security card in her name with another person’s number on it. According to a senior official of the SSA, approximately 75% of all illegal aliens have a fraudulently obtained SSN.10
 
Unfortunately, systems such as E-Verify which allow employers to check the validity of a SSN and protect American workers are often vigorously opposed by business lobbies and Hispanic groups. If all employers used E-Verify, no adult could use a child’s SSN with her own name as Ms. Vasquez did because E-Verify matches the name, SSN and date of birth.
 
What Parents Should Do to Protect Their Child's Identity

"I think it's not very nice that people are ruining kids' futures." Brooklyn R. Identity Theft Victim, Age 9*
"A.G. & Legislators Team Up to Protect Children from ID Theft"Press Release, Utah Attorney General, March 10, 2010

1. Obtain a state issued ID card for the child and input your child’s biographical information into the state motor vehicle agency record system with the correct and complete name, address, SSN, and parents’ names so that if an identity thief attempts to obtain a driver’s license in your child’s name – the motor vehicle representative will stop the transaction and report the attempted fraud! It is essential that children be recorded in the state ID system at an early age not only to prevent identity theft but also in the event of a missing child, having a record in the system along with state Amber Alerts will provide more tools for authorities to locate the child.

2. Safeguard biographical data by protecting information such as SSNs from easy access in the home. Lock up birth certificates and government paperwork that includes SSNs and precise biographical data such as place of birth. Keep the child’s ID card in a secure place until the child is old enough to protect it. NEVER share SSNs or birth details with extended family, friends or acquaintances.

For information about how to proceed after you discover that your child's identity has been stolen, visit the Identity Theft Resource Center.

ITRC Fact Sheet 120 - Identity Theft and Children 

 

 

 

Sources:
1“Identity Theft 911 report blames illegal immigration, government inaction for state’s top ranking.” The Business Journal of Phoenix, March 4, 2008. http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/03/03/daily17.html?t=pri...
2 Life Lock, Inc and InstantAmber Partner to Keep Kids Safe. http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3419156
3 ITRC Press Release. http://www.idtheftcenter.org/artman2/uploads/1/Aftermath_2008_20090520.pdf
4 US Gov’t Accountability Office, Dept. of State, GAO-09-447, Undercover Tests Reveal Significant Vulnerabilities in State’s Passport Issuance Process (2009)
5 ITRC Press Release. http://www.idtheftcenter.org/artman2/publish/lib_survey/Press_Release_-_...
6 FTC Releases Survey of Identity Theft in US Study Shows 8.3 Million Victims in 2005. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/11/idtheft.shtm 
7 Porter, Eduardo. “Illegal Immigrants are Bolstering Social Security with Billions”. New York Times. April 5, 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html?_r=1
8 Utah Work Force Services handout distributed on the floor of the Utah House of Representatives by Representative Karen Morgan in 2007
9 Mortensen, Ronald. “Utahs’s identity theft protection law comes too late for 11 month old Child”. Examiner. June 5, 2010. http://www.examiner.com/x-32429-Salt- Lake-City-Immigration-Examiner~y2010m6d5-Utahs-identity-theft-protection-law-comes-too-late-for-11-month-old-child
10 Ibid