No parent desires for their child to be targeted or abused by financial predators. To protect your child, begin by requesting his or her free annual credit report from any of the three major credit reporting agencies. You may contact one of these agencies at the following:
Equifax—www.equifax.com
Experian—www.experian.com
TransUnion—www.transunion.com
If the report you receive advises you that your child does not have a credit record, this is a strong indicator that your child has not been victimized. If this is the case, make a family decision to put into action the preventive measures this book has to offer you.
If you discover that your child does have a credit record, review every detail on the report. This is the point at which you must start your journal or log book. A credit agency report will list businesses, credit card companies, mortgages, and any other entity that issued credit in your child’s name. Your first call should be to one of the credit agencies to request that they place a ninety-day fraud alert on your child’s account, as I have previously stated. This will prevent the further issuance of credit without your authorization.
Your next call should be to the police to request an investigation into the fraudulent activity. My cautionary note to you is that a certain percentage of child identity theft is perpetrated by relatives. Be prepared for the police to investigate all details and bring forth charges regardless of whether or not there is a relationship to the victim.
You should contact the issuers of accounts in your child’s name. Ask to speak with the company’s fraud department. Advise the company that your child has been a victim of identity theft and that credit in your child’s name should be frozen on the specific account listed in your credit agency report. Ask the fraud representative to confirm, in writing, that your request has been officially notated in their system of record, and confirm any steps to collect delinquent debts. Additionally, contact the credit agency from whom you received your credit report, and request that they notate in their system of record your intent to dispute any amounts owed to any and all creditors.
Discovering child identity theft is not as difficult for parents who are educated on the crime. Knowing your rights helps tremendously. What also helps is the high level of motivation and determination and the bit of anger parents feel; they can channel this into fixing the problem.
Question #42: What is the most serious indicator that my child is a victim of identity theft?
Devastating news regarding child identity theft may be delivered through many potential avenues. Some include law enforcement notification, certified mail notification, and debt collector contacts. These types of notifications mean that the crime has already been committed against your child, and quick action is needed. The most serious of these is notification brought to you by law enforcement. Though this topic was touched on in question #40, allow me to elaborate on this more in depth.
When a law enforcement officer shows up at your door, you have serious problems that may not be limited to child identity theft. Someone who committed a crime may have used your child’s name. If your child is suspected of such an incident, the officer investigating the crime may or may not have obtained a warrant. Many types of crimes are committed with stolen identities. Most usually, these crimes involve some type of fraud.
The most dangerous cases of identity theft are the potentially violent and harmful ones. These crimes may involve cloning your child, or possibly stealing your child’s identity to plan, finance, and commit crimes of terrorism. Serious crimes of espionage, or crimes against the United States, require the involvement of federal law enforcement authorities. I would also add that the longer you wait to involve law enforcement, the worse it will be.
If plainclothes officers come to your home or business and present FBI credentials, they may intend to inform you that a terrorist has stolen your child’s name. First, ensure that the credentials of the individuals to whom you are speaking are legitimate. Once you determine you are speaking to legitimate law enforcement officers, cooperate fully and completely. Be assured that law enforcement has no desire to charge your child with a crime they did not commit. This does not mean that you would not benefit from having an attorney to provide legal guidance to ensure your family’s interests are protected. Listen carefully to what is being conveyed to you, with or without legal representation, cooperate fully, and begin your child identity theft journal or log book.
If your notice does not come in the form of law enforcement delivery, it may come to you as a legal document through certified mail or regular U.S. mail. Certified mail usually indicates one of two things: either a bill is enclosed from a business as a last effort to try to get you to pay it, or it contains a legal notice. In either case, you need to open the envelope and carefully read the letter’s contents.
Your initial response will most likely be disbelief and anger, but I encourage you to read the entire communication and key in on critical information. The first critical item to locate in a certified mail delivery is the point of contact for you to contact with questions. Before calling the contact number, start your journal or log book, entering the person’s name, business or court name, and phone number. Call the point of contact and schedule a face-to-face meeting.
Resist trying to resolve the issue over the phone unless the business or the court is too far away. If the entity is local, schedule an appointment to discuss your concerns. If need be, and the situation is appropriate, you may desire to take your child with you to the scheduled appointment. If not appropriate, then make sure to bring your child’s birth certificate, Social Security card, and a photo along with you. When taking original documentation for verification purposes, try to resolve the issue without giving the business or court the original or a copy.
Whether you hire an attorney for legal advice or not, you need to ensure that there is no negative impact on your child or your child’s record. This means that you need to take personal responsibility to ensure your child exits the process without any record of civil judgments, criminal convictions, or negative credit entries. Ask each court, business, or credit agency for written confirmation of this to protect your child in case it comes up again.
Question #43: How can I find out for sure if my child’s identity has been stolen?
Do you know someone who has access to your child’s information and had a sudden burst of prosperity? Have you been denied government benefits or assistance because you were told that your child is already receiving assistance? Has your child’s passport application been denied because he or she already has one on file? Are you receiving calls from bill collectors or businesses looking for your child?
If you experience any one of these signs, or other signs mentioned in this book, you need to start the process of verifying that your child’s financial future is still intact. If warning signs are present, quick action is imperative, as your child may be a part of the national statistic that indicates that children are fifty-one times more likely than adults to succumb to identity theft. Finding out one way or another will give you the peace of mind needed to sleep at night.
If you believe that your child’s identity has been tampered with, you owe it to yourself, and your child, to verify if it is true. Unfortunately, unlike most crimes, child identity theft cannot be verified by a trip to your local or state police office. Law enforcement agencies do not maintain databases that can determine whether a child or an adult has been victimized until it is reported as a crime.
This being the case, the first thing you will need to do to find out if your child’s identity has been stolen is obtain his or her credit report. This can be done by contacting one of the three major credit reporting agencies. You may contact them at the following:
Equifax—www.equifax.com
Experian—www.experian.com
TransUnion—www.transunion.com
Of the three agencies, TransUnion is currently the only agency to offer a secure online for
m process when ordering a credit report for a child. Both Experian and Equifax require the parent or legal guardian to print a credit report request form that must be mailed into the agency upon completion.
If there is not a report for your child, that’s a pretty good indicator that no one has attempted to get credit in your child’s name. This is welcome news, but you should not let your guard down. The reality is you need to get updated, educated, and working on protective measures to ensure the safety of your child’s identity. If your child does have a credit report, then there is a good chance that she or he has been victimized. If your child has in fact been victimized, start your child identity theft journal, record the entry from the credit report you are concerned about, contact one of the three credit reporting agencies, and place your free ninety-day credit alert; then call the police. By now, I hope some of this advice is starting to sound repetitive, and familiar. Your action now is louder than my words.
Another helpful document is a Social Security Administration benefits and earnings statement. These statements can be ordered from the U.S. Social Security Administration’s website at www.ssa.gov/mystatement/. Review for income your child did not earn, and notify the Social Security Administration of any error. Take the information you learn from the benefits statement and file a police report on any child identity theft crime.
These are the two “for-sure” mechanisms to verify child identity theft. Other signs mentioned throughout this book give cause for concern, but the credit report and Social Security Administration’s benefits and earnings statement provide you with proof. The good news is that neither of these requires a fee, and both are simple to obtain.
Now it is time to remove your children as a potential statistic. Verification is just one of several steps, but an important one. If you have discovered that your child has not been victimized, then help others learn about the crime of identity theft. If your child has been victimized, then use the information you have read in this book to regain control of your child’s financial future.
Use your verification findings as your peace of mind; however, do not allow a one-time check lead you to believe that your family cannot be victimized in the future. Annual credit checks are necessary until your child becomes an adult and can request his or her own credit report. Your child may not thank you right now, but he or she will certainly appreciate your efforts in the future.
Question #44: What should I do if my child starts to receive bills in the mail?
Since I was a child, one of my favorite things to do has always been going to the mailbox to retrieve the mail. I did this knowing that only one in one hundred letters would be for me. In looking back, I believe it was the joy of seeing my name on the envelope, and the hope that there was something good on the inside, that kept me intrigued with mail delivery. Strangely enough, even today, I like going to the mailbox in the hope of finding a nice note or card, although most of what I receive now are household bills.
Retrieving mail from the mailbox is seemingly an elementary task, and easily one that a child could handle. The dangers that exist today in society mandate that while children can retrieve the mail, an adult should screen it before opening. This is due to the uniqueness of the crime of child identity theft and child predators. Screening allows parents to see who is sending their children mail. Just for a moment, imagine what an impact parents could have if we had the same control over e-mail.
The fact alone that a child is receiving mail does not itself indicate that he or she has been victimized. Critical factors about mailings to children and identity theft should raise your awareness or suspicion. The first factor is mail volume. Is your child receiving an unusual amount of mail? The second factor is who is sending the mail and how they send it. As you have already learned from information covered in this book, preapproved credit card offers, bills, mortgage offers, car loan offers, lottery mail, and other mail that seems out of the ordinary for a child to receive, may be red flag warnings of child identity theft.
Children do not usually receive bills in the mail unless you have ordered something in their name or allowed them to order something that requires a billed payment. When dealing with child identity theft, it is not unusual for children whose identities have been compromised to receive bills in the mail from retailers, credit card companies, debt collectors, banks, mortgage lenders, electronics stores, or auto dealers.
In most cases of identity theft, the criminal will use your child’s name, date of birth, and Social Security number, but change his or her address to avoid detection. Businesses seeking to collect on debts owed will pay for debt collectors to find your child’s name. These debt collectors use computer systems targeting public records to locate current addresses of people who choose not to pay their obligations. They will relentlessly call homes with your last name asking if your child is there or if the person receiving the call knows your child.
Collection agencies will also use legitimate means, such as tax records, utility records, court documents, property records, and other public records, to locate any individual delinquent on a debt. By the time the collection agencies use all these resources, the bill will be grossly overdue. Debt collectors will eventually find your child and start calling, wanting you to pay the debt whether you were victimized or not. Collectors will also start a campaign of harassing mail and contact you at your place of employment in an attempt to get you to pay the bill.
Your success is found in your ability to communicate your predicament. Look for that point of contact in communications your child receives. Contact the appropriate point of contact and arrange a time to meet or, if they are too far away, explain that your child has been victimized by identity theft. In addition to the collectors, call the business or creditor who is reporting the debt directly and advise them of the same. Businesses want to collect on past-due debts but do not want to get sued in the process.
If you feel legal representation is needed, obtain an attorney and have him or her write to each company or organization reporting erroneous information to advise them that your child has fallen victim to identity theft and that your child does not owe any respective debt they are reporting. Mentioning that further contact would be considered harassment might help. Lastly, remember to keep your journal or log book of phone calls, letters, contacts, and any information that was discussed, then contact the police to report your child’s victimization. Recalling information through your journal or log book will help tremendously when you are talking to creditors, as they will know that you are serious about the identity theft and not just trying to skip out on a legitimate bill owed.
Question #45: What actions should I take before I make the call to the police?
Be realistic about what you are about to take part in. I believe the average child identity theft victim and the child’s parent(s) and/or guardian(s) will spend approximately 500 hours, and between $3,000 to $5,000 of their own money, in their attempt to report and correct identity theft victimization. Documenting, reporting, writing letters, making phone calls, and investigating identity theft cases are an exhausting process for parents and guardians. The actions you take prior to beginning the cleanup stage can mitigate some of the negative aspects and soften the blow of this long and painful process.
The first step is mental preparation. The better you mentally prepare yourself before you begin the process, the better you will deal with what you are about to face. Understand the time and commitment required in dealing with child identity theft. The process will entail making a lot of phone calls, writing in journals, writing letters, talking to police officers, going to court, talking to creditors, visiting businesses, and more.
Amid all the devastation of having your child’s financial future stolen will be the creditors and debt collectors. Debt collectors have one goal, and that is to collect money due to them. They are not concerned with your issues, challenges, or problems, which in this case revolve around child identity theft. Expect debt collectors to be
pushy and unsympathetic. Success in dealing with them involves your pushing back by telling them that your child has been harmed because they continue to harass you with false information. Tell the debt collectors that you are contemplating legal action against them if the harassment does not stop.
If your child is a victim of identity theft, the first step in cleaning up the mess is going to be developing a journal of events. Regardless of the agency contacted, one of the key points of success will be “note making.” A journal, which can be as simple as a legal pad or composition notebook, provides you a permanent record of actions. The journal needs to list the date of each call or contact, agency contacted, person spoken with, e-mail address or return phone number, a description of what was said, and a list of what actions need to be taken as a result of the contact.
In addition to a journal, I recommend that you maintain an accordion-type folder to store letters, bills, receipts, notes, business cards, document copies, and other information you will need to retain. The better organized you are, the easier it will be to quickly reference a needed item. I also recommend that you never give away an original document unless required to by the court. Make extra copies for creditors or organizations who are in need of proof or documentation of a matter at hand, but retain the most legible document, preferably the original.
Once you have the journal in place, gather documents and records you need to have on hand before you call the police. Before you make the call to law enforcement, I highly recommend you gather any bills, mail, insurance statements, credit agency reports, credit card statements, birth certificates, and any other pertinent information you have available to you as proof to support your claim. Having these documents readily available will assist you in answering the questions that will be asked of you by the law enforcement officer or representative who takes your call. If you do not have copies of critical documentation to best explain your situation over the telephone, it may be easier to visit the police department in your local area for a face-to-face meeting. If you do not have copies of your original documentation, local law enforcement can assist you with this, as well, when you report the crime.
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