There are two areas of travel concern: family travel and business travel. When vacationing, we tend to travel as a family, where each person has multiple bags and is traveling through an often-confusing process of locations, such as security screening areas, baggage claim areas, airport restaurants, gift shops, or waiting areas. Keeping up with tickets, IDs, luggage, carry-on items, and personal belongings can be challenging.
When traveling for business, we tend to travel alone, but also tend to be more occupied by technology with our computer, BlackBerry, and cell phone usage. Business travelers tend to get caught up in conference calls, business calls, and making future travel arrangements and lose focus on the security of their belongings. The weight of the items we carry sometimes makes it tempting to rest them in an airport chair while we “run” for a quick drink, newspaper, or restroom break. Luggage and personal items left unattended are at a very high risk to be stolen.
Child identity theft occurs every minute of every day. It occurs because we have not yet learned the value of not packing personal information in items that are easily stolen. Identity theft criminals steal luggage, carry-on bags, and computer bags because passengers have a tendency to pack valuable items, sensitive data, and valuable personal information in an unsecure manner. Protecting your child’s information begins at home when you make decisions on which items you desire to take with you.
As children age, they are given more and more responsibility to pack bags on their own. School book bags, sports bags, and overnight bags are just a few examples of what children pack every day. Has your child ever returned home to notify you that he or she has left a bag at school, on a sports field, or at a friend’s home? What is inside that bag that may put your child’s identity at risk? Parents need to be involved in the packing process with their children. Ensure they do not pack identity-sensitive information in their bag or suitcase. Adults should pack only the items necessary for the intended event or travel destination, and refrain from traveling with excess identity documents. Items such as a child’s passport should not be taken unless it is necessary for travel out of the country.
During travel, children’s personal information should remain with a responsible adult. Identity documents, cash, and sensitive documents must be kept close and accounted for at all times. Checks should be done by parents at intervals to ensure that all items are accounted for. Any suspicious encounters must be reported to parents immediately for evaluation of whether or not it is appropriate to notify law enforcement.
Your bags are always vulnerable throughout your travel journey. From the time you get in a cab or park your car, your personal items become subject to theft. Constant challenges exist, such as the fact that many computer bags, suitcases, and canvas bags look the same. This creates chaos and makes for a good excuse should the thief get caught. All an identity thief has to say is that it looks exactly like their bag or item, and apologize for the “error” for picking up your bag.
Your best defense is to make your item stand out regardless of how common the piece of luggage is. Tie bright-colored ribbon on the handle. Use colored duct tape to mark your bag. Sew a large patch on your bag to set it apart. These are just a few security suggestions that will also allow your child to use his or her creativity to personalize a school or travel bag. Use your imagination to change your bag’s appearance.
The hard-core criminals are going to steal no matter what. These are the individuals who are blatant about what they will do and do not care, or those who have employment that provides them special access to your bags when you are not present. Personalizing luggage items discourages criminals who are “on the fence” about stealing.
When traveling, make it a personal policy to always keep your carry-on bag and laptop with you or a family member. The best security for your belongings, and the transportation industry’s preference, is to keep them in constant physical contact with you at all times. Establishing a security policy of accountability protects your family from harm.
Your next challenge will be security in your hotel room. When you are outside the room touring and enjoying the sights, both cleaning and maintenance personnel have unlimited access to your belongings. I love to travel, and countless times in the past I have walked hotel hallways seeing open doors where cleaning or maintenance personnel have propped the door open and are multitasking. Lock up both your belongings and your information to protect your family.
Question #34: Can children of military personnel be targeted for child identity theft?
One of the most heartbreaking scams I have heard about in quite some time involves the stolen identity of children through the scamming of military spouses. This relatively new scam is generated with a telephone call to a military spouse informing him or her that their deployed spouse has been seriously injured overseas. The caller represents himself or herself as being a representative of the American Red Cross and says that the loved one has been flown to Germany. Treatment in Germany requires notification of the spouse, as well as verbal verification of the serviceman’s and family’s dates of birth and Social Security numbers. The scammer uses this opportunity to frighten a serviceman’s loved one into releasing personal identity information for care to be administered, with no real emergency at hand.
Our U.S. military services are made up of active and reserve forces. Both types of forces are activated for duty assignments around the world in both combat and peaceful duty locations. Our services consist of Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, and Coast Guard personnel. Military children are like foster children from the single aspect that they move often, encountering multiple caretakers, and attend different school systems where they may spend less time building long-term relationships.
Reserve forces consist of state National Guard units and federal reserve forces. Reserve and National Guard units commonly consist of Air Force Reserve, Army Reserve, Army National Guard, Air National Guard, Coast Guard Reserve, Naval Reserve, and Marine Corps Reserve troops. All services are highly respected and serve proudly. While the commitment of a serviceman is to be held in high regard, the concern related to identity theft is directly associated with a serviceman’s need to focus on his or her job.
Military children of reserve and National Guard troops are often left behind in the city, town, or county from which their loved one deployed. Children of active duty troops remain on military posts, bases, or military subsidized housing near the active duty station of the deployed serviceman, as well. Military children lack half of the parenting team to help protect them against child identity theft. Quite honestly, child identity theft is not a parent’s major focus when a loved one is deployed, which places a child at greater risk to have his or her personal information stolen.
The best defense military families have is to be among the residents living on an active military installation. Most military installations are closed facilities with full-time police forces. Military police units are quick to respond and thorough in their investigations. They do not usually suffer from the same budgeting woes and department policy problems of local civilian agencies.
Military police organizations are very active in crime prevention. They can assist you with crime prevention information. Contact your military police office or Provost Marshal and inform them you would like a program on identity theft and child identity theft established, if one is not already. If you live off base or post, and you are an active duty family member experiencing child identity theft, you can start with your military police or go to the civilian police agency in the jurisdiction where you live. I would recommend starting with the military police, as this could be a crime targeting you as a military family.
Scams targeting military families are no different than any other specialty scam. Specialty scams target specific situations. Identity thieves evaluate every opportunity to make money and see military situations as unique. Military families need to be aware that vital information, such as an injury or death notification, occur face-to-face and ar
e conducted by military officers in uniform, or credentialed Red Cross personnel. This important notification of a serviceman does not occur by way of telephone or e-mail, so do not release private identifying information.
Service families receiving phone calls requesting any type of personal information need to reject them. Once you receive the call, visit your active duty unit and ask to see the commander in charge. If the unit commander verifies that your incoming call was a scam, ask for a call to be made to the police. A report should be taken so the information can be disseminated to all post or base personnel.
Question #35: If someone sends my child a “chain letter,” is there an identity theft risk?
Parents should, at some point, talk to their children about “chain letters.” Chain letters are communications circulated by e-mail, over the Internet, through the U.S. postal mail system, or hand delivered child-to-child or adult-to-child. These letters cover a variety of topics, and almost always require the recipient to circulate multiple copies of the letter to friends, relatives, and fellow students.
Chain letters are not limited to children or young adults, but affect savvy adults, as well. Chain letters can be fun, but they can also be destructive. Whether they are fun or destructive, they are designed to be emotionally manipulative to motivate the person who receives them to continue the chain. In most cases, the manipulation behind the desire to circulate chain letters is either fear or superstition. Some letters claim that if you “break the chain,” bad luck will come upon you. Other letters say that you may experience death or serious illness if you fail to pass the letter on.
Modern technology has changed the common chain letter. Chain letters are less common as stamped letters you receive in the mail, and more commonly found now as chain texts, chain e-mails, or chain postings on social networking websites. They can reach more children and young adults who are technology savvy. Unfortunately, reaching more children raises concerns of increased exposure to the unknown and additional potential risks to a segment of society that suffers a disproportional amount of identity theft.
Some chain letters involve money and promises of unrealistic or fraudulent success. Chain letters requiring you to send money, and convincing you to enlist others to send money, are illegal. These letters are scams and should be avoided. Chain letters requesting money as an investment in a venture, where you in return will receive hundreds or thousands of dollars, are called “pyramid” schemes. Pyramid schemes often claim that they will be placing your name on a widely circulated list in which the next person to receive the letter will send you money, as will the next person when your name rotates around again, and so on, as a continuous cycle.
The dangers of chain letters are many. They include threats, broken promises, coercive language, and the risk of child identity theft. Letters frequently require children to give their information as part of fulfilling the chain. Whether asked in whole or in part to provide your child’s name, address, age, date of birth, and Social Security number, it is all part of the scam.
Chain letters are a way to reach children. Children fail to see the harm in tempting schemes that appear too good to be true. They also see little harm in participating in what seems to be a harmless venture that adds their name and address with hundreds or thousands of others as it circulates around the world. The truth is that when your child receives an e-mail chain letter and chooses to respond, they most likely send the letter to all their contacts. When this magnifies, hundreds of thousands of children may be impacted and at risk for identity theft.
The impact of chain letters is that your spam will increase threefold, as will your phishing e-mail, worms, viruses, and hoaxes. Once your child’s e-mail or phone number is inserted into the circulating list, your computer or phone will be bombarded with virus-infected spam. Your first clue should be a system that is significantly slowed, as well as a notable increase in pop-ups. Your child has now become a target for both sales and scams.
Your best defense is to educate your children on the potential dangers of chain letters and encourage them not to participate. Parents and teachers can partner on this education. Schools can also set policies prohibiting chain letter circulation or participation on school computers. A partnership in education and policies requiring the deleting or shredding of chain letters is your best defense against chain letter dangers.
Question #36: It is a new school year, and the forms sent home by the school ask for my child’s Social Security number. Am I required to provide it?
Most school systems today are modernized enough to recognize that issuing students identification cards with their Social Security number as their assigned number is unwise. Many of the forms sent home to parents involve emergency notification and insurance. Some forms involve permission to participate in after-school activities. Regardless of the form, the need to provide a child’s Social Security number is rare or limited.
My suggestion is to look at each form individually, and if you feel the Social Security number is not needed, discuss the concern of child identity theft with a school administrator. The more forms floating around with your child’s Social Security number, the greater chance he or she will become a victim of identity theft. In some cases, forms just need to be updated by the school system removing the request for the Social Security number. In other instances, the request for your child’s Social Security number remains on a form because no one has ever challenged it.
You need to inquire about a very important issue when talking to your child’s school administration about their Social Security number request on forms. Inquire as to whether the U.S. Department of Education or your state department of education requires the identification of the student on the form you were given. This might actually be the case, depending on the form. If this is the provided explanation, then the school system may be requiring the Social Security number to ensure or verify the number of students for proper funding levels. If there is a federal or state mandate for your child’s Social Security number on a form, I suggest you comply.
What if there is no federal or state mandate? If this is the case, three aspects are at work here. The first is old habits. As a society, we have for many, many years identified people not by name but by Social Security number. The second push behind forms sent home requiring a Social Security number could be commercialization. Businesses, such as insurance companies, continue to use Social Security numbers in all their records. Many insurance companies refuse to stop requiring Social Security numbers even though identity theft continues to be a problem. The third aspect is prioritization. Without making the removal of Social Security numbers a priority within our school systems, identity theft will continue to be a threat.
Hard economic times continue to require local school systems to do more with less. School leaders are very concerned with direct security issues, such as the physical safety of their students. Where school systems often fall short in matters of security is in prioritizing all instructional needs over peripheral security concerns, such as child identity theft. To highlight my point, I would challenge you to research how many of our nation’s school systems currently have a child identity theft program in place. How about in your own child’s school? I bet the answer will surprise you.
The basic question is, do you have to provide your child’s Social Security number when it is requested by a school system? Most schools will distribute multiple forms requiring children’s Social Security number even if it is not pertinent data. That is your issue. I recommend a visit to your local school administration office to inquire whether they will allow you to omit your child’s Social Security number from any form that is not mandated for an acceptable reason. If school administration mandates that the number must be provided, then request an explanation of what security measures are in place to protect your child’s Social Security number, and other personal information.
Ask the simple and hard questions. What happens to each form after it is turned in? Who gets it? How
is it secured? How long is it kept? Who is responsible for the security of the form? Once the form has been entered into a computer system, what happens to the form and how is the computer information protected? Ask if they shred all documents after their need has passed. While some of this line of questioning may make school administrators uncomfortable due to lack of consistent policies, keep in mind that you are asking these questions to protect the identity of your child.
Protection of your child’s personal data is a great area for parents to get involved. Set the tone for the new school year by having the parent-teacher association, parents, teachers, and school administration meet to discuss child identity theft, and the issues surrounding this crime. Parents can make a difference. You can band together and change your school’s policies if they do not adequately protect your children. The most memorable changes in society occur with a grassroots movement.
Question #37: My child reports that someone is following them. Could it be someone trying to steal their identity?
Child identity theft is a predatory crime. What this means is that someone targets your child to take something from him or her for their own gain. Regardless of the reason, someone following your child is potential danger. In addition to targeting your child for identity theft, your child could be followed for other reasons as well. It could be the surveillance for abduction or a sexual predator scanning the area for potential victims.
In cases of child identity theft, thieves use many different methods of obtaining needed information. One method is when an individual follows children to befriend them to get their information. A strange person will rarely get the information they need, however; a friend will get plenty. To be successful as a thief you must find a method of success.
Befriending by a stranger is concerning, and thieves understand this. Thieves know that contact with a child, if not done in an acceptable or low-key manner, may cause the concern of parents. For this reason, child identity thieves look toward roles in which contact with a stranger is downplayed and they are introduced to children without question. Methods of doing this, for example, can be joining a group that accepts strangers yet includes children, such as a church, volunteering for a scouting troop, or volunteering at a school, library, or museum. They might also look at volunteering or employment with recreational sports leagues.
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