Parents will usually do just about anything to protect their children. They try to provide them with the best nourishment, take care of them when they are sick, and give them lots of unconditional love. Parents also try to do everything in their power to prevent complications so children can have the best chance to grow up healthy and happy.
However, parents now must face a growing problem that could harm the financial futures of their children: Child Identity Theft.
A recent article by one of America’s leading identity theft experts, John Sileo, warns parents to be on the lookout for child identity theft. Keeping an eye on your child's credit now can save them from a tremendous amount of financial heartache in the future from identity theft and fraud.
Child identity theft can cause a lifetime of headaches. Even though their children may not be in high school yet – or even have all of their teeth – parents should remain vigilant against child identity theft and check their child's credit score for fraudulent activity.
Parents who think they have many years before they need to worry about protecting their children from identity theft are sadly mistaken. Children are highly attractive identity theft targets because they have untouched and unblemished credit records. Identity thieves steal a child’s identity early, nurture it until they have a solid credit score, and then abuse and discard it.
According to Sileo, child identity theft is the fastest growing type of the identity theft. Although it’s difficult to estimate exactly how many children lose their identities – since the crime can go undetected for years – the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that 5 percent of identity theft cases target children, which translates into approximately 500,000 "kidnapped" child identities each year. Even more troubling, the Identity Theft Resource Center discovered that in over half (54 percent) of the cases, the child was under the age of six.
So how does child identity theft happen?
All an identity thief needs to ruin a bright financial future for children is their name and Social Security Number (SSN), and these pieces of personal information are exposed in a variety of ways:
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When registering for daycare, schools, and recreational sports.
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When filling out medical, dental, and hospital records.
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When joining organizations like the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts.
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When the child's information is permanently stored and accessed by volunteers or employees.
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When one of the organizations storing the child's information is breached by a hacker or malicious software.
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When an adult becomes a "friend" to a child on a social networking site like MySpace or Facebook and tricks the child into disclosing personal information.
While the child’s age should show up on any credit background check, the majority of people screening the credit report rarely give it the time and care necessary to detect fraud and simply match the name and the SSN provided. Identity thieves are then free to wreak havoc on a child’s perfect credit, leaving a maxed out credit card, unpaid bills, and possibly even a criminal record.
Even worse, the age of the “applicant” – i.e. the identity thief posing as a child – becomes official with the credit bureaus upon the first credit application. This makes clearing a sabotaged credit record even more difficult because parents have to prove to the credit bureau that their child is not old enough to have a credit card and isn’t responsible for the accumulated debt.
Unfortunately, both parent and child might not discover the identity theft until the child is older and tries to open a bank account, apply for a job, get a driver’s license, or enter college. At that point, the grown child could spend years cleaning up someone else’s fraudulent mess.
Parents acting now on behalf of their children will protect them from the consequences of child identity theft:
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Starting adulthood with a low credit rating.
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Being denied a first loan, credit card, or apartment rental because of a crime committed many years earlier (the passage of time makes this crime very hard to clear up).
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Being denied access to college or a new job.
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Having a warrant out for an arrest for crimes that they didn’t commit.
For parents, cleaning up the disaster of child identity theft for their children is costly and time consuming. Just as parents can’t protect their children from every bruise and scrape, nothing can entirely remove the risk of identity theft. However, taking steps right now to protect children from child identity theft is a one of the best investments parents will make in their children's financial future.
Parents can take control of their children’s sensitive information – and their own as well – by giving themselves and their children a personal background check. While most background check companies focus exclusively on employers and large corporations, MyBackgroundCheck.com is a leading provider of consumer background checks and has performed over one million background checks on individuals worldwide. For more information, please visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.
Contact Us @ MyBackgroundCheck.com
tahearn@mybackgroundcheck.com
*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!
If you are one of the estimated 14 million "officially" unemployed people in the U. S., you probably have tried just about everything to find work. Resume polishing, job fairs, interview tips, and an impressive new suit or dress can help, but in the end all of those efforts – and expenditures – will not matter if you cannot pass a background check.
Times are indeed tough for jobseekers. According to recent Labor Department reports, unemployment rates have reached their highest figures in a quarter of a century with approximately 5.7 million jobs having been lost since the recession began in December 2007. Even worse, some experts say that the job market – especially with the recent layoffs in the auto industry – may get worse before it gets better.
With a growing number of jobseekers competing in a rapidly expanding pool of qualified competitors, employers can – and most surely will – be very selective when it comes to pre-employment screening. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that more than 85% of large companies and a rapidly growing number of smaller employers currently perform some form of background checks.
From entry level to the executive suite, the majority of jobs these days require a background check, so most of the 14 million people currently looking for work will likely undergo one. What exactly is in a background check? It depends on the job or the industry, but most basic background checks include:
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Social Security Number (SSN) Address Trace
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Criminal Record Search
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Sex Offender Registry Search
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Employment & Education Verification
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Professional License Verification (if applicable)
Jobseekers should be ready for their background checks before actually undergoing the process. A job offer can be taken away because of a failed background check, even if the reason for that failure was false, erroneous, or inaccurate information uncovered during the background check. Many jobseekers have had this happen to them, many never knowing what was uncovered or even having the opportunity to explain.
There are several types of errors made during background checks, but the five most common mistakes are:
To ensure that their background check will be based on the most current and accurate data, jobseekers need to know first-hand what is included in their personal information and if it contains mistakes. To do this, they must first perform a “personal” background check on themselves to see if their data contains errors, inaccuracies, discrepancies, or incomplete/missing information.
While background checks performed by employers on prospective employees is standard procedure, jobseekers requesting background checks on themselves to better their chances of getting hired is a recent trend. These “personal checks” provide employers with validation of resume contents, ensures that public records are accurate, and helps individual jobseekers stand out from the growing pack of applicants.
While most background check companies focus exclusively on employers, MyBackgroundCheck.com was one of the first consumer background check services available online and has performed over one million background checks on individuals – including jobseekers – worldwide. For more information, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.
Download FREE Article "Is Your Background Check Costing You A Job? The Five Most Common Mistakes & How To Correct Them" (.PDF File)
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*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!