The Rise In Complaints Of Identity Theft Against Children
Identity theft against children is the fastest growing sector in reported identity theft complaints, according to the Federal Trade Commission. And often times parents cannot be trusted to protect their children because the majority of child identity thefts are family members.
The government needs to step in and take measures to protect children from greedy or misled relatives. In addition, corporations who have taken steps to be more forgiving to adult victims of identity theft have to become more understanding when dealing with complaints of child identity theft.
Fastest Growing Segment Of Complaints Of Identity Theft
In just two years time, the The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) discovered that the incident of complaints of child identity theft rose from 2% of the total reports to 4%. This is the fastest growing category of identity theft complaints, and is projected to continue in this trend. Many of these crimes were committed years before, and are only noticed as individuals become more aware and begin to look deeper into their children’s credit reports.
The FTC believes that not enough of these crimes are being noticed in adequate time. The FTC estimates that a half of a million children fall victim to identity theft each year, however only about ten- or fifteen thousand are reported annually. Often times the lack of incident reporting is because the people who are responsible to protect the child from such theft are the one’s stealing their identity.
Majority Of Child Identity Thefts Committed By Family Members
More that 50% of complaints of identity theft against a child leads back to the parents or other close family members. Usually the identity was stolen in times of extreme need, either to avoid losing utilities or to keep a working vehicle.
Typically the parents justify the behavior by claiming it was for the best of the child at the time. It can be difficult for these individuals to look ahead five or ten years and see how a ruined credit report can really devastate the child. Most of the time, the family members have the good intention of keeping up with the payments and never intend to put a negative mark on their child’s credit history.
