Receiving an unsolicited credit card application addressed to your child might seem odd on its face, but it may be a red flag that your child’s identity has been stolen.
Better Business Bureau cautions parents to know the signs and be vigilant about protecting their children’s personal information.
This phenomenon is more common than many people think. While identity theft is a costly and devastating crime for adults — an April 2022 study by Javelin found 42 million Americans were the victims of identity theft last year, with $52 billion in losses — Javelin also found more than 1 million children fall victim to identity theft every year. The fake credit established with children’s Social Security numbers can rack up significant debt that can haunt a child’s credit report well into adulthood.
Scammers’ tried-and-true tricks, from impersonating a government agency to combing the dark web for inactive Social Security numbers, play a major part to play in identity theft targeting all ages. The rise of social media also is a factor, Javelin noted; children may unwittingly expose their personal information by being too trusting of someone they meet online. In many cases, identity theft may be perpetrated by a family member or friend.
Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker received about 800 reports of identity theft in 2021 and just under 500 such reports so far in 2022. While very few of these reports involve identity theft against children, an Ogden, Utah, woman reported…
