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Children are often more attractive targets for identity thieves and criminals. Learn how child identity theft happens and how to protect your kids.
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The scary truth is that children are often more attractive targets than adults for scammers, cybercriminals, and identity thieves.
The latest research from Javelin Strategy found that [*]:
Child identity theft affects around 1.25 million American children each year with families losing nearly $1 billion.
As a parent, your child’s safety is your top concern — but are you doing enough to keep them safe online?
Scammers are constantly finding new ways to target your family. As kids grow up and become more independent, there are more ways than ever to target their identities and online safety — from hackers creating fake apps, to phishing emails and cyberbullies on online games.
In this guide, we’ll explain how child identity theft happens, how to tell if a scammer is using your child’s identity, and what you can do to protect your child from identity theft now and in the future.
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Child identity theft happens when someone fraudulently uses the identity of a minor for financial or personal gain.
For example, scammers could use your child’s Social Security number (SSN) and name to apply for credit cards, take out loans, receive government benefits, or commit tax fraud — all in your child’s name.
Children are highly desirable targets for identity theft because they’re essentially “blank slates” for criminals.
Children don't have credit scores, credit card statements, or any credit history at all. Scammers can start small by building a legitimate credit history for your child and then
Here’s how child identity theft happens:
The impact of child identity theft is hard to measure. Children end up with destroyed credit scores or even get denied financial aid and employment. On average, child identity theft costs American families an average of $372 out-of-pocket on top of any fraudulent charges you need to pay back [*].
If you see any of these warning signs of child identity theft, you need to act quickly to protect your family.
Scammers and criminals are always looking for new ways to target you and your family. Here are ten steps you can take to protect your child from identity theft.
Since children can't get credit until they're at least 16 years old, initiating a security freeze is one of the best way to prevent identity theft.
A security or credit freeze blocks access to your children's credit reports and denies all credit applications. This means that scammers won’t be able to open new lines or credit or take out loans in their name.
You or your children can reverse the freeze when they're old enough to need credit.
Setting up a security freeze for a child is more complicated than setting one up for an adult, but it's worth the time.
You'll need to contact the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — and prove the identities of both you and your child, and show that you're the parent or legal guardian.
The process is slightly different for each credit bureau, but you'll need your ID as well as your child's birth certificate. Sixteen or 17-year-olds can initiate a security freeze by themselves.
You can also easily get all of the forms and information you need to freeze your child’s credit directly in Aura’s family identity theft protection app
📚 Related: The Top 5 Identity Theft Protection Apps (iOS & Android) →
Criminals know that children aren’t as cautious of online interactions and will often look for personal information on social media profiles, websites, and forums. As a parent, it's crucial to teach your children how to protect their personal information and privacy online.
Ensure your children understand the importance of never disclosing their full name, date of birth, home address, and phone number. For teenagers, this also includes their Social Security numbers (SSN) and driver's license information.
Encourage your kids to hang up on anyone who calls asking for sensitive information. Explain that texts, emails, phone calls, and social media messages aren't always from the people they claim to be and that an identity thief may use caller ID to pose as someone else. It's also a good idea to update your child's social media privacy settings to ensure that strangers can't view their profiles or contact them.
When in doubt, encourage them to come to you to check if they’re dealing with a scammer.
📚 Related: How To Tell If An Email Is From a Scammer [With Examples] →
Sadly, in three out of five cases of child identity fraud, the child victim knows the perpetrator.
Anyone — from family friends to volunteers in school activities — can take advantage of the information that children share with them.
That's why it's a good idea to keep the most vulnerable piece of personal information — your child's Social Security number — as private as possible.
The IRS is the only entity that truly needs to know your child's Social Security number. When forms from school or doctor's offices request your child's SSN, you can usually leave it blank. If you absolutely must share, ask how the number will be secured and who will have access to it.
Alternatively, you can offer the last four digits (instead of the full number), although these digits are still valuable to cybercriminals.
📚 Related: My Parents Are Using My Social Security Number - Should I Report Them? →
As a parent, you need to strike a balance between educating your children of online threats and monitoring what they do online to make sure they stay safe.
Parental controls gives you insights into how your children are using the internet and their devices so you can make sure they’re not putting themselves at risk.
For example, Aura’s parental controls allow you to:
Be vigilant when it comes to disclosing your child's personal information on online accounts, apps, and services.
For simple activities like raffles or contests, only disclose limited information such as your email address. In most cases, you can use your own name instead of your child's name.
These ideas also extend to social media. Consider restricting your children from having social media accounts or messaging apps in their own names until they reach a certain age. Studies have also shown that too much social media exposure can have harmful effects on your children's self-esteem.
Once your children have created their own Discord, Snapchat, and other social media accounts, follow them to monitor what they share — and offer guidance on what's safe.
📚 Related: These 11 New Discord Scams Can (and Will) Steal Your Data →
Few parents realize that social media is the perfect way for identity thieves to find family members' personal information.
This applies to everyone in the family. It's easy for parents — and often grandparents — to overshare on social media and put children's identities at risk.
Here are a few ways to enhance your social media privacy:
Even seemingly innocuous information can enable fraudsters. They can match photos of your home to your address and even find answers to security questions — like a pet's name, mother's maiden name, childhood best friend, or elementary school.
The bottom line: be smart and use common sense before posting publicly on social media.
📚 Related: 10 Warning Signs of Cyberbullying (and What To Do) →
Your child's smartphone, tablet, or laptop can open the floodgates for all types of identity theft.
Enable Face ID or an access password in order to unlock your child's device. This is the default on most smartphones today; but if your child's device isn't password-protected, update that mobile device setting immediately. Here's how to do it for iOS and for Android.
Consider going the extra mile and encrypting your child's data. This means that even if a thief can access what's on the device's memory, the information will be meaningless without the password.
Devices running iOS, like iPhones and iPads, use data encryption by default. To enable this elsewhere, read manufacturer instructions for Android or Windows.
Finally, consider installing antivirus software to protect them if they accidentally click on links or download files from hackers.
If you decide to sell an old smartphone, tablet, or computer, be sure to wipe the memory clean and restore everything to factory default settings. This prevents anyone from accessing sensitive images, documents, and files that could put your family at risk.
📚 Related: How To Block Websites on Android Devices (7 Methods) →
At home, choose a safe place (ideally with a lock) to store important documents such as your child's Social Security card, birth certificate, and medical records (to prevent medical identity theft). A heavy safe is the best option, as criminals can steal a lightweight document safe and crack it open later.
Be especially careful with your child's SSN; it can be incredibly difficult to change Social Security numbers, even after identity theft or fraud. And, of course, use a shredder to discard any physical documents you no longer need.
📚 Related: How To Control Internet Access at Home (and Block Sites) →
When it comes to keeping your kids safe from identity theft, there's simply too much for one person to monitor.
If you have no idea what to do if you or your family's identity is stolen, an identity theft solution like Aura's family identity protection plan is the best safeguard.
With Aura, you get identity theft protection for your entire family, award-winning parental controls, 24/7/365 credit monitoring, proactive data breach alerts, and notifications of any suspicious activity, along with a $1M insurance policy which may cover eligible losses as a result of identity fraud.
📚 Related: The Top 10 LifeLock Competitors & Alternatives For 2024 →
If you suspect your child is a victim of identity theft, take the following steps:
All parents want their children to have bright futures, but identity theft can create severe roadblocks that children only discover once they're older.
Children with fraudulent credit card accounts in their names may face problems when getting their first job or applying for student loans. Fraud takes a lot of time and money to resolve and may damage your child's credit for years or even decades.
Editorial note: Our articles provide educational information for you to increase awareness about digital safety. Aura’s services may not provide the exact features we write about, nor may cover or protect against every type of crime, fraud, or threat discussed in our articles. Please review our Terms during enrollment or setup for more information. Remember that no one can prevent all identity theft or cybercrime.