As with most crimes that initially go undetected, the temptation to do it again proves to be too great, and its frequency increases. This usually leads those using their child’s identity to branch out from utility services to nonvital services, such as cable television, additional cable packages, Internet services, or luxury credit items that have little to nothing to do with the care of the child from whom they stole the identity.
Regardless of the reason, parents, relatives, and friends who use a child’s information to obtain goods or services are breaking the law. These individuals subject themselves to additional hardships when creditors discover the crime and turn the complaint over to law enforcement. They also subject the child to undeserved emotional trauma when the child discovers the crime.
Seldom does a relative look beyond today or tomorrow when they steal an identity. If he or she did, they would see that they may face both guilt and depression as a parent or relative who has caused emotional damage to someone they are supposed to care for and protect. At this stage, the damage has been done, and trust has been violated.
When a young adult turns eighteen years old and discovers that he or she has been victimized, the journey to repairing their name usually leads the victim to the credit reporting agency. Unsuspecting victims call to report the identity theft problem, wanting the damaged credit history repaired with punishment for the person who committed the crime. As the true details emerge, the victim may discover that the thief was a family member, relative, or friend. At this point, victims usually change their mind, wanting the credit history fixed but without law enforcement involvement.
The financial world doesn’t work like that. Agencies are not going to resolve your credit troubles without a police report to verify your claim. You will be left with a personal dilemma of reporting a parent or family member, or living with destroyed credit, unable to buy a home or vehicle, gain employment or college admission, or obtain other needed credit.
Is it true that parents and relatives steal children’s identities? Absolutely it is! After all, who knows the personal information of a child better than the child’s parent who not only gave the child his or her birth name, but also provided emotional and financial support? My advice to anyone who finds himself or herself facing hard times is to seek public assistance avenues, or to ask extended family for financial help, as opposed to choosing the unlawful act of stealing the identity of a child. Creating hardships for your children is not the answer. If children are our future, then let’s give them a fighting chance.
Question #7: What are the main reasons people steal children’s identities?
In the world of identity theft, the types of criminals can be categorized as those who abuse someone’s existing account, or those who seek to establish a new account for fraud purposes. Most child-identity-theft-related crimes involve criminals who steal identity information to establish new credit for purchasing power. It may be used to buy goods or services, get credit, obtain a credit card or mortgage, open a checking account, or obtain benefits. Below is an expanded list of items criminals are stealing, and what they are doing with them:
Cell phone contracts—Thieves love to use someone else’s name when obtaining cell phones and smart phones. It opens up a world of communication not previously available to them. Thieves can order items they have no intention to pay for using credit cards they have stolen or obtained falsely. They can organize drug deals, expand criminal activity, or just communicate with friends, family, or even fellow criminals.
Driver’s licenses—Put a criminal’s picture on a driver’s license and most anyone in the United States would accept it. With a stolen identity, a criminal can become the person whose face appears on the new driver’s license. Thieves also commit crimes to raise money for the purchase of ID-making machines. Commercial firms sell ID-making equipment. Criminals can purchase high-dollar equipment and create ID neck-type tags, allowing the criminal to gain access to secure locations. Wallet cards, driver’s licenses, and other forms of identification are created from such commercial ID machines, all of which may be fake, but appear real. The ability to get a driver’s license, or any official government-recognized identification, is coveted by a criminal.
Checking or savings accounts—Opening an account with a bank is similar to getting a driver’s license in a fake name. Both establish a person as credible. Once a thief writes a check and pays a bill, they establish themselves as a credible customer.
Bank loans—With a new identity and a clean credit record, a thief can obtain a loan for cash from a bank. Most banks are happy to lend to individuals who have a clean credit history, no bankruptcies, and a good credit score.
Vehicle purchases—An identity thief can use the clean record of a child to walk into an auto dealership and ride out in a brand new vehicle. This is attractive to a thief, because identity thieves are “all about the flash.” New cars, hot cars, flashy wheels, etc., all make the criminal appear more legitimate when he or she moves on to the next scam.
Electronics purchases—iPods, compact disc players, Wii devices, BlackBerries, video games, car stereos, and any other electronic gadgets that are the rage will be sought after for purchase by identity thieves. While this is just a small list of electronics attractive to thieves, the list is ever-changing with the advancement of technology.
Department store goods—From clothing and food, to furniture and automotive supplies, the department store is a target for identity thieves. They target department stores due to the variety of merchandise they can get at one location in a short period of time.
Credit cards—This is the all-time favorite item sought by identity theft criminals. Credit cards generate bills that will not come due for payment for thirty-plus days; thus, a criminal has the freedom to purchase travel, goods, meals, and any other items they desire, charging up the card until they maximize the credit limit.
Home loans—Most readers would not believe that an individual posing as someone else could obtain a loan significant enough as to purchase a home. It certainly does occur. Call it greed, sloppy loan application procedures, or sometimes having a loan officer as an accomplice to a crime, but it happens every day. The victim, in this case, is not only the individual who had his or her identity stolen, but also the bank and its shareholders.
Obtaining governmental assistance—Benefits, such as welfare, Social Security, food stamps, and employment compensation, top the list. Thieves are also not above asking for heating assistance in a child’s name during colder months, or visiting food banks for food.
Disaster assistance—After a disaster, many federal, state, and private programs help disaster victims; unfortunately, this is also a call to identity thieves. Thieves will steal a child’s identity, or use their own child’s information, to obtain assistance designated for those who have suffered from disaster in an area hit by such occurrences as a flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or fire.
Utility services—Connections such as electricity hookups, water services, natural gas services, telephone services, cable services, and garbage collection are all of interest for an identity thief. This is generally the number-one area that opens the door for parents to the world of child identity theft. A parent feels much less guilty about obtaining a service or good that they feel directly benefits their child.
Question #8: How do terrorists use a child’s identity?
There are over 240 valid forms of driver’s licenses in the United States with over 10,000 agencies that can issue birth certificates. With so many varieties of identification available, law enforcement is challenged with proving at a first glance that identifications are not valid. It usually requires further investigation by asking questions or doing computerized checks.
A terrorist has a combination of motives for stealing a child’s identity. They include financial motives to raise funds, radical motives to advance their cause, and a needed desire to hide their true identity. Terrorists seek and need legitimacy; they want the fr
eedom to move around without question. A few documents that provide the needed legitimacy are a student or employment identification card, driver’s license, pilot’s license, a vehicle title or lease, mortgage loan documentation, or a passport. All documents listed can be obtained by using a child’s stolen information.
Terrorists seek either short-term legitimacy for a one-time operation or a long-period legitimacy, allowing them the freedom to plan for years undetected. A terrorist will stop at little to achieve a desired result. They will commit crimes such as burglaries, home invasions; pickpocketing, and bank robberies. Terrorists will also commit abductions, car break-ins, assaults, threats, computer hacking, gang-related crimes, and other criminal acts to obtain the funds, information, and the access needed or desired.
The 9/11 Commission Report,11 which was published after the horrific events of September 11, 2001, indicates that terrorists use impersonation as their key tool. The report refers to an Al Qaida training manual that was seized by officials. This manual is now available to the public on the Internet and is used to provide law enforcement officers around the world insight into Al Qaida training techniques. The training manual actually states that trainees are instructed to leave the training camp with five fake, fraudulent, or stolen IDs. These trainees are instructed on how to live off the fake or stolen identities while in the United States or other countries.
Terrorists are the most dangerous and most concerning threats facing law enforcement. They have plans, desires, goals, and organized structure. A child’s stolen identity fits their long-term requirement perfectly; providing America with the urgency needed to begin educating parents, teachers, law enforcement professionals, and society on the potential dangers of child identity theft.
Help defeat terrorism by following established guidelines within business and government practices. If you work for an agency that has set a policy of requiring proof of identity by a driver’s license, then stick to the policy. Do not accept a library card or other document with just a name that could be easily forged. If you find yourself in a position of authority checking identifications, adhere to your policies. Do not put yourself in the position of accepting a sob story from a con artist. Everyone can make a difference in protecting America.
Lastly, any attempts to obtain documents, credit, or services without proper identity should be reported to the police. Allow the proper authorities to review the information and decide what is suspicious, and what is not. Law enforcement authorities have systems in place to verify identification. Local and state police agencies will report and share suspicious information with the proper federal law enforcement agency in order to piece together a picture of criminal terrorist activity. Terrorists are defeated with the teamwork and vigilance of citizens and law enforcement.
Question #9: How can my child’s personal information be used by undocumented workers?
On February 17, 2012, Richmond, Virginia’s WWBT NBC 12 posted a story on their website about a Virginia woman who was the mastermind behind an elaborate theft ring.12 This person bought Social Security cards and Puerto Rican birth certificates from people she knew and sold them to illegal immigrants. Having bought and sold these documents since 2008, she had 50 to 100 legal documents from which to profit. It gets worse. This thief hooked up with a Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) employee to enter false information into the motor vehicles system. The thief and the DMV employee were both involved with the issuance of fifty to one hundred valid Virginia driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, all for the sake of profit.
Undocumented workers come to the United States needing documentation to work, receive health care, and buy items on credit. Of these three needs, the public is probably most familiar with the situation of undocumented workers who seek U.S. jobs. Jobs provide for subsistence, items of need, items of luxury, and money to send back to the undocumented worker’s family, if they did not come with the individual to the United States.
The Social Security numbers used by undocumented workers are frequently stolen from U.S. citizens, including children. Due to this issue and others involving undocumented workers, federal enforcement agencies have stepped up efforts to check businesses for proof that workers are in the United States legally. The federal enforcement efforts, and the fines that are imposed on businesses who do not comply, have forced potential workers to provide a Social Security number as a condition of employment.
There are many daily examples where children are victimized through identity theft. As previously mentioned, children are fifty-one times more likely to be targeted because an individual in the United States can illegally use the stolen identity for a longer duration without concerns about discovery. Compounding the abuse is the fact that a child’s identity is rarely stolen and used one time, but rather most often stolen then sold to multiple illegal undocumented workers.
Child identity theft is perpetuated even further when the stolen Social Security number is used to file tax returns on earned income, on income that was never earned, or to take fraudulent deductions. This creates a nightmare for the child when they file their first return as an adult and find out that they owe the IRS large sums of money, or are the subject of a federal investigation.
Child identity theft can involve undocumented workers using stolen child identities to obtain health care. This health care is for themselves, or themselves and their family. Medical fraud involving stolen identities usually occurs in one of two forms. The first involves health care plans obtained through an undocumented worker’s employer using a child’s stolen Social Security number when gaining employment.
The second type of health care fraud involves undocumented workers using a child’s stolen name, date of birth, insurance information, or Social Security number to obtain medical care, emergency services, prescription drugs, or surgery. Medical fraud involving child identity theft can happen at a doctor’s office, clinic, hospital, dental office, orthodontist office, pharmacy, or anywhere medical services are offered or provided. Fraudulent medical care can even take place in a school if the child is enrolled under another child’s stolen name.
Regardless of the type of medical fraud, it causes confusion and the possibility that the real child, or the child receiving the care through fraud, will be harmed by the entry of mixed data into the health care medical records system. False data entered into medical records can cause administration of improper medications.
The last reason, of course, that an undocumented worker would desire to steal a child’s identity is to obtain credit for credit cards, luxury items, electronics, vehicles, loans, and houses. This makes the undocumented worker no different than the “normal” child identity theft criminal. This individual desires items they cannot afford, or that they can afford but choose not to spend their own money on.
You are best protected from this type of criminal when you keep your child’s information safe. Ensure that your child’s Social Security card is in a safe place, ask your child not to share their personal information, ask their teachers to be mindful of child identity theft, ask your physician what precautions they take with medical information, and write to a credit agency to see if they have any record of anyone requesting credit using your child’s information.
In addition to the steps mentioned above, review your bills closely for medical visits your child did not have; this is a red flag for child identity theft. Review your child’s medical records at the doctor’s office for conditions they do not have. Lastly, look very carefully at your health care benefits statement for information that tells you that you have reached your benefit plan maximum or limit on benefits. The bottom line is that this should not happen if your child has not had an illness.
Question #10: Are some children more susceptible to targeting for child identity theft than others?
In the United States, certain children are more likely to have their identities stolen. Categories include foster children, children of Hispanic descent, children in poverty, chi
ldren with passports, and children known to have good health care coverage. Some children are not in these categories but raise their risk greatly because of their actions or habits.
Foster children and children in poverty are at greater risk because they lack available resources, education on topics of personal finance, and a typical strong, close family support system. These children also lack a consistently safe and secure location to keep valuable documents such as their Social Security card and any insurance documents. While foster children lack consistent parental guidance on issues, children in poverty lack the ability to access money and, therefore, are constantly prioritizing with matters of necessity taking precedence. This means that they might, for instance, need to spend money on food instead of purchasing a safe or lock box to secure important documentation in their home.
The FTC stated in their Identity Theft Survey Report that nonwhites have slightly higher rates of victimization.13 Children of Hispanic descent who are U.S. citizens are at greater risk due to their proximity to countries with high Hispanic populations. These countries provide the United States with a high number of undocumented workers. Undocumented workers seeking to legitimize look first for someone of their descent. This simplifies the completion of the theft when they go to obtain medical care under the stolen name, or apply for credit in the stolen name.
Children with passports are a target because they have a legitimate document, and the thief must just figure out how to switch the photo and not get caught. Passports are accepted around the world and certainly anywhere ID documentation is required in the United States. The only worry a thief has is ensuring he or she does not present it at U.S. Customs while traveling through our border entry. Computerized scanners will scan the documents and show an alert officer that the photo does not match the person attempting to use the document.
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