Are your children safe?
A CMU study states, “The primary drivers for such attacks are illegal immigration (e.g., to obtain false IDs for employment), organized crime (e.g., to engage in financial fraud) and friends and family (e.g., to circumvent bad credit ratings, etc.).” And the theft could go undetected for years, because few think to check their kids’ credit. When do parents find out? “When collection agencies call or when the child becomes an adult and is turned down for his or her first credit card,” Equifax says. The CMU study adds some examples…
- 303 victims under 5 years old – and one only 5 months old
- 537 cases where a child’s Social Security number appeared in property records, including those related to mortgages and foreclosures
- a 16-year-old girl defrauded for $725,000
Carnegie Mellon University published an article recently, asking this question: Wouldn’t you want to know if your eight-year-old was in foreclosure on a home in another state? or if your three-year-old was in collection for a huge utility bill across town? or wouldn’t you rather find out now than on when he or she is applying for student loans on the eve of going away to college that your child has been a victim of Identity Theft?
These are hard facts about a real threat to our lives and the lives of our children. There are affordable solutions to these threats and the reality is MOST families are not protected. I stand ready to share with you the “peace of mind’ that comes from being protected, give me a call or email today – “It’s not what you know that hurts you, it’s what you know that isn’t so … and thinking this will never happen to me “just isn’t so!
So, in all fairness, my title isn’t totally accurate – Are Utah’s Children safe from Identity Theft? It should say, “Are America’s Children safe from Identity Theft,” and my answer is the same – “some are,” but most are not.