Are Utah’s children safe from Identity Theft?

Are your children safe?

Answer is, “some are,” but most are not.  We live in a wonderful part of the World here in Salt Lake City.  Our Mountains, Canyons, National Parks and outdoor facilities are a draw for people from all over the Planet.  We are also a big draw for those who steal the innocence, good names, un-spotted credit records and identities of children.

Utah has had larger families than the United States (on average) since records have bee kept.  Our schools have a larger number of students per class than any other State. In 2010 Utah had the lowest median age among the states at 29.2 years. The second-youngest state, Texas, had a median age of 33.6, a whopping 4.4 years older than Utah.  Utah’s median age was also 22 percent lower  a full eight years younger  than the national median of 37.2 years old. Also, Utahns typically were 13.5 years younger than residents of Maine, the oldest state, where the median age was 42.7.

Identity Theft has been the leading complaint at the Federal Trade Commission  (FTC) for over a decade and recently studies have been released indicating that the Theft of children’s identities is the fastest growing segment of this insidious crime.

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.