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Identity theft: parents who steal from their kids
Filed under: Gadgets
What do you when, at 17 years-old, you've been denied entry at every college to which you've applied -- even though you make good grades -- and, at the same time, you've been rejected by credit card companies and financial institutions -- even though, in theory, you have perfect credit?
Randy Waldron Jr. figured something didn't quite add up, so he obtained a copy of his free credit report. When it came back, the document was 50 pages long -- it said that he owed Master Card and Visa hundreds of thousands of dollars, had liens and civil actions against him, and even owed back taxes to the state of Florida. Clearly the charges were fraudulent -- which is bad enough -- but when the truth came out, it was far worse than a simple case of identity theft.
The culprit turned out to be Randy Waldron Sr, who, shortly after his son was born in 1981, started racking up debt using Randy Jr's social security number. It would take years for Randy Jr to convince the state that he should be issued a new identity, and even then -- once he finally distanced himself from his father's misdeeds -- he faced a new set of problems, as an adult with no credit history, driving record, etc.
Because of the way credit is issued (issuers have no way of knowing if a Social Security number belongs to a minor), children are increasingly being targeted for identity theft -- especially from family members who have access to their personal information. Subsequently, it's recommended that parents not only protect their children's Social Security numbers, but also annually check their children's credit report, which they can obtain -- free of charge -- once a year from each of the three reporting agencies.
For information on how to access free credit reports, go here.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
7-23-2007 @ 10:06PM
Luna said...I have heard of parents using their childrens names, SSNs and so forth to obtain utility services when they have racked up bills they have no intention of paying. It is sad and troubling that these poor kids have horrible credit scores even before they are old enough to know what they are.
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