A rash of data breaches has taught many of us to scrutinize our personal credit reports for fraudulent accounts. We don’t monitor credit reports for our young children, though, because we don’t expect them to have one.
That can give an identity thief
carte blanche
to use a child’s clean credit history when applying for a loan, opening credit card and bank accounts, applying for government benefits, or renting an apartment. It’s a danger that parents should be aware of, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)*.
Seven ways to protect your child’s identity
- Keep birth certificates, Social Security cards, and other identity documents in a safe place, such as a safe deposit box at one of our branches.
- Don’t post birth dates or other identifying information on social media.
- Shred any documents that include your child’s personal information before you throw them away.
- Don’t share your child’s Social Security number with anyone you don’t know. If it’s requested by school or a medical provider, ask to provide an alternative identifier.
- If your child’s school asks for personally identifiable information, see if you can opt out. If not, verify that these records will be kept in a safe location and won’t be publicly available. The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) lets you opt out of sharing your child’s contact information in a student directory.
- Be on the lookout for events that might trigger identity theft. Some examples: loss of a wallet or information containing your child’s Social Security data, a security breach at the school or doctor’s office, a break-in at your home, or misappropriation by someone in the household with bad credit of their own.
- Keep your voice down at the pharmacy and doctor’s office. An eavesdropper might pick up enough information to obtain medical care using your child’s identity.
Some states require credit reporting agencies to let parents create a freezable credit report for a minor child. (Freezing a report is one of the best ways to prevent identity fraud, since most companies won’t open an account for an unknown customer without viewing their credit report.) Until your state joins this group, keeping your children’s identity safe is mostly up to you, Mom and Dad.
