APPLETON WISCONSIN - APPLETON Homes and Real Estate For Sale

FISCALLY FIT

By TERRI CULLEN

How to Stop Identity Thieves From Targeting Your Child
April 3, 2008; Page B11 Wall Street Journal

My 8-year-old son Gerald hates to visit the dentist. He likes his dentist himself well enough, but the chair, the bright light shining in his face, and the metal equipment scraping away at his teeth combine to make him extremely apprehensive. Gerald's dentist and I do our best to ease his anxiety, but by the end of each visit we're all glad it's over.

On our most-recent visit, though, I was the one who left feeling anxious. A member of our dentist's staff left my son's Social Security number out for all to see, leaving him vulnerable to identity theft.

TALK WITH TERRI

Do you take steps to protect children from identity theft, or do you think there's little chance of kids becoming victims? What do you think is the biggest danger to your child's sensitive personal information? Hackers? Theft? Or just careless data handling? Join me and your fellow readers in a discussion about child identity theft.

How real is the threat for an 8-year-old? Hard to say. About 5% of identity-theft complaints to the Federal Trade Commission in 2005 involved victims who were 18 or younger. Another report by the Identity Theft Resource Center found that more than half of child identity-theft victims surveyed became victims at age 5 or younger.

But these numbers fail to tell the whole story -- family members are often the perpetrators of child identity theft, and they aren't likely to report their crimes. Children are victimized by family for a number of reasons: Some family members behave badly with credit and see a child's SSN as a chance for a clean slate; while others are unable to obtain a job because of a past criminal history or because they're illegal immigrants, and use a child's legal SSNs as a ticket to employment.

I became alarmed about exposing Gerald's information when I walked up to the dentist's front desk to schedule my son's next appointment. The office manager had stepped away for a moment, but Gerald's folder was lying open on her desk. The waiting room was busy, and anyone who stopped at the desk could have viewed my son's personal information -- his name, address, phone number, date of birth, and Social Security number. My husband's SSN and health-insurance account information were also available to anybody who'd reach over the counter and flip through Gerald's file. (I did just that in front of two other employees, neither of whom took notice.)

Years ago, I wouldn't have been concerned at all about others viewing our SSNs. I'm old-school enough to remember the days my college professors posted final marks in the hallway, with my grade next to my SSN. In my days in the Army, my SSN was stamped on the dogtags around my neck and just about anything else that identified me in writing. After I was discharged, I put one of the tags and other memorabilia in a keepsake memory box hung on my apartment wall for all visitors to see.

Back then, I didn't know identity thieves use others' sensitive personal information to open fraudulent credit accounts, or steal from existing financial accounts. I later learned that more-insidious thieves use SSNs and other personal information to obtain government documents, such as driver's licenses, that let them pose as their victims in order to commit crimes or dodge the law.

Frightening enough, but identity theft can be much more damaging to a child -- and because so few parents think their child's data can or would be compromised, they're often careless about guarding it. Generally, parents and child identity-theft victims don't realize a crime has been committed until the kids become young adults and try to obtain credit on their own. Then they, and their parents, must deal with hours of paperwork trying to restore the child's good name.

As I became more educated about the dangers of disclosing my son's sensitive personal information, I began to take steps to protect him from identity theft. I gave Gerald's dentist his SSN back in 2002, but I probably wouldn't do that today. There's rarely a reason for it, since the dentist had my husband's SSN and health-insurance data on file as an account identifier.

OBTAINING A CHILD'S CREDIT REPORT

Check for credit files on children under the age of 13 by writing to the Big Three credit bureaus. (Generally, the bureaus don't keep files on minor children.)

Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, Georgia 30374

Experian
P.O. Box 9532
Allen, Texas 75013

TransUnion
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834

These days, before divulging Gerald's SSN or providing copies of his birth certificate, I grill the person asking for it why such information is needed, and how it would be protected. Unless the government's involved -- as it is with public-school records or our tax returns, for instance -- I refuse to provide it. (A few years ago, Gerald's SSN and birth certificate were requested by a local athletic-league managers who said the information was needed for "insurance reasons." I refused and they dropped the request.)

Gerald's Social Security card and copies of his birth certificate are kept locked away with other sensitive family documents in our firebox. When he's old enough to carry a wallet, I won't let him carry his SSN card in it -- the same way I did as a young adult.

I also keep my eye open for signs that Gerald's information may have been stolen. Offers of credit in the mail generally don't raise red flags because my son shares a name with his father and grandfather, but I keep an eye out for offers with his middle initial, which is different from theirs. The one time such an offer arrived, I called the company and asked if my son had an account opened in his name with the lender (he hadn't), and then asked for its address so I could write and request that it remove Gerald's name from its mailing list. So far, we've had no other contacts.

Finally, each year I check our credit reports for free at Annualcreditreport.com and from each of the three major credit-reporting companies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. I'm looking for any signs of identity theft in our files: credit accounts or public records reported that I don't recognize; late payments suddenly appearing on old, unused credit accounts; or any change of name or address noted.

To make sure Gerald hasn't become a victim of identity fraud, I check to see if he actually has a credit report -- generally, the bureaus don't keep files on minors. For security reasons, bureaus make requests of any credit files of children under the age of 13 a bit harder to obtain. Each year I need to write to each of the bureaus, and supply my son's name, address, date of birth and copies of his birth certificate and Social Security card. I'm also required to send copies of Gerry's driver's license or mine, or some other government-issued proof of identity, as well as a copy of our current utility bill to prove residence. (Sounds like a lot of personal information to send, but the bureaus have most of it anyway.) It's one of a number of tedious yet necessary tasks that I relegate to this time of year, when the mother of all tedious tasks -- filing our tax returns -- needs to get done.

When the dentist office manager returned to her desk with a smile, I asked to speak with her privately and made my concerns known. She was embarrassed and apologetic. For my part, I'm even more diligent about guarding Gerald's SSN and other sensitive information. I know the odds are slim that one of the other moms in the waiting room would actually steal Gerald's data. But he might not always be so lucky.

Do you take steps to protect children from identity theft, or do you think there's little chance of your kids becoming victims? What do you think is the greatest threat to your child's sensitive personal information? Hackers? Theft? Or simple carelessness? Write to me at fiscallyfit@wsj.com, and then come join me in a discussion about child identity theft.

Write to me at fiscallyfit@wsj.com.