Child Identity Theft
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Below you will find the contact information for the three major credit reporting agencies:
Equifax—www.equifax.com
Experian—www.experian.com
TransUnion—www.transunion.com
TransUnion—This credit reporting agency has the best-explained system for reporting and requesting child identity theft credit reports. I encourage you to visit their website and complete their online, secure Child Identity Theft Inquiry form. If you have trouble locating it, then type the words “child identity theft inquiry form” in their search block. You will be able to complete the inquiry online for instant submission.
Experian—This credit reporting agency requires you to complete their request form via hard copy and then mail it in for processing. Parents and guardians need to review the submission instructions on Experian’s website carefully before mailing a request for a child’s credit report due to specific documentation requirements. If your child has a credit file, Experian will provide you with a copy. Armed with a report to review, you can notify the agency via certified mail, return receipt requested, advising them of what information is fraudulent. The Experian website contains a statement that they will not accept faxed documents as a secure means of establishing identification.
Equifax—This credit reporting agency is similar to Experian in that it requires you to complete a credit report inquiry form in hard copy format via mail delivery service.
Each of the credit reporting agencies offers you services you can select or pay for if you desire. The choice is yours, but I encourage you to take advantage of the one free credit report each year you are entitled to by federal law mandate. For this reason alone, you should not be paying for an annual credit report. To ensure you are not charged, visit www.annualcreditreport.com.
Beware of sites that offer free credit monitoring or free credit scores. Sites that offer you free services may end up costing you, as their “free” period may be short in duration and their charges may be recurring on your credit card. Any site that requires your credit card information is not free.
You should also be aware of imposter websites. These are sites that will purposely misspell a web address, tricking you into their website to scam you. If you desire a free credit report as intended by the law, type www.annualcreditreport.com into your web browser. Do not do a web engine search, as this may redirect you to a site you do not desire to visit.
If you receive an offer, pop-up ad, or phone call from someone reporting that he or she is a representative calling on behalf of www.annualcreditreport.com, or any of the three nationwide reporting companies, do not reply. According to the FTC website, this is most likely a scam. If you receive an e-mail you suspect is fraudulent or a scam, forward it immediately to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.
Question #60: What are my rights regarding what is in my child’s credit file, and how can I correct errors?
As noted earlier, parents have the right to review their child’s credit file. This section will further explain how you have the right to obtain documents relating to fraudulent transactions. Businesses and creditors must give you proof of transactions, such as applications and other transaction documents they have. Your request must be in writing and be accompanied by a police report, verification of your identity, and possibly an affidavit (if required).
To recognize errors on your credit report you must first know exactly what is allowed to be in your report. Some of the reporting data will surprise you. Your credit report is actually a credit history for you as an individual. The history is created from a vast number of reporting sources. If you obtain credit from a business, person, or organization, they have the right to report your timeliness of payments to a credit bureau.
Information that you should expect to see on your report is bank loan payments, mortgage payments, vehicle loan payments, and credit card payments. Items reported that you might not be aware of are landlord payments and medical bills from doctors, hospitals, dentists, or specialists. Payment records are also received from utility companies, child support administrators, and items that are of public record, such as bankruptcies, civil judgments, and tax liens.
Your report will contain your name and any name variation you may have used in the past, your current and previous address information, and all employment information known to the credit agency. A little-known fact is that in addition to everything listed above, your report can, under the authority granted in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, also list known crime convictions. Most credit agencies do not report crime convictions as a matter of practice, but they may in connection with an employer background check, insurance company application, or an application to rent a home, condominium, or apartment.
Now that you know what is in the report, you should learn what your rights are. You have the right to know who has been checking on your credit. Any company or individual who checks your credit information will be listed as a credit inquiry on your report. When you receive your credit report, it should automatically list who has inquired about your credit during the last six months.
Once you receive your report, you need to know that one in four credit reports has invalid data on it serious enough to be considered critical or serious errors. How do these errors occur? You could have been mistaken for someone else, and the data was entered on the wrong person’s credit history. You might also have the same name as another person who is not making their payments on time.
In child identity theft cases, virtually any information on a credit report under your child’s name is an error. Remember, your child is not supposed to have a credit report yet unless he or she is out in the workforce and engaging in credit-related services. Review the credit report for accuracy. If you find errors, you need to dispute them.
How do you dispute an error? Write the credit reporting agency a letter advising them exactly what you desire to dispute. They have thirty days to investigate what you dispute. Ask them to produce documents with signatures. A critical note is that the credit reporting agency must be able to verify the negative information they have received from the business, person, or organization, and if they cannot, they must remove the information from the credit report. Once all disputed items are removed from the corrected credit report, you are entitled to a free copy of the corrected report.
What happens if you get another credit report in six months or a year and the information you thought you had corrected reappears? Federal laws require credit reporting agencies to notify you in writing within five days of reinserting any information previously removed. When doing so, the credit agencies must provide you with a toll-free telephone number to dispute the information being reinserted and give you the opportunity to dispute it.
Question #61: How can I block identity theft–related information from showing up on my child’s credit report?
If your child’s credit report contains information that was the result of identity theft, you have the right to request that the credit agency block it from your credit file. To accomplish this, you must, as part of the process of reporting, call the police and have a police agency investigate your child identity theft case. Armed with a police report, the credit reporting agencies are required to investigate, and if appropriate, remove the fraudulent data entries.
The following is an excerpt from the Fair Credit Reporting Act as it pertains to blocking information on your child’s credit report that was placed there as the result of identity theft:
The Fair Credit Reporting Act
§ 605B. Block of information resulting from identity theft [15 U.S.C. §1681c-2]
(a) Block. Except as otherwise provided in this section, a consumer reporting agency shall block the reporting of any information in the file of a consumer that the consumer identifies as information that resulted from an alleged identity theft, not later than 4 business days after the date of receipt by such agency of –
(1) appropriate proof of the identity of the consumer;
(2) a copy of an ide
ntity theft report;
(3) the identification of such information by the consumer; and
(4) a statement by the consumer that the information is not information relating to any transaction by the consumer.
(b) Notification. A consumer reporting agency shall promptly notify the furnisher of information identified by the consumer under subsection (a)--
(1) that the information may be a result of identity theft;
(2) that an identity theft report has been filed;
(3) that a block has been requested under this section; and
(4) of the effective dates of the block.3
If in the process of checking your child’s report you check yours as well and find fraudulent or erroneous information, you have the right to ask the credit bureau to notify any company who has pulled your credit within the last six months to be notified of the concern. You can also request that anyone who received a credit report containing the erroneous information be sent another credit report once corrected. While your child does not need the credit at an early age, you need the best credit score possible for potential future borrowing needs.
The FTC also has a complaint process that assists you in gathering information in a report to give to the police and creditors. Go to www.ftc.gov, go to their “Consumer Protection” folder, and click on the “complaint assistant.” The complaint assistant is a web-based reporting form that captures your child’s identity theft issue. This form is printable and can be attached to the police report you obtain from your local or state police when you report the crime. Reporting identity theft to the FTC also assists the commission in capturing identity theft as it occurs across the United States.
You now have the information to review your child’s credit report and block information that should not be there. Any information needing to be purged should be requested, investigated, and removed. The law is on your side.
Question #62: What is a fraud alert, and when should I place one on my child’s credit file?
Identity theft costs our economy over 60 billion dollars every year. Child identity theft is the leader among all identity theft crimes when it comes to repeat offenses against the same victim. Child identity theft also leads in the category of length of time a criminal has to commit an identity theft crime against the victim.
The original system of fraud alerts was probably developed for adults before criminals figured out the rewards of stealing a child’s creditworthy information. The system today benefits children far more than it does adults. The reason for this is that children do not check their credit reports annually; therefore, they are more susceptible to undiscovered identity theft.
Adults have the upper hand when it comes to being able to discover identity theft. Adults have established monthly billing cycles and established creditors they do business with. They are also connected with the services of the business world and are easily traceable for bill collectors. Having said all the above, however, the average time of discovery for an adult involved in an identity theft scam is approximately fourteen months. Nine to eighteen percent of adult victims take four years or longer to discover that they have been victimized by identity theft criminals.
These statistics are sad when you consider that adults have the ability to get a free credit report check once every twelve months. Parents who get involved in the prevention of child identity theft can, as a by-product, protect themselves as well. They can also educate other relatives, explaining the benefit of child identity theft education. Learning the definition of an alert and the benefit an alert can bring you is a great place to start.
A fraud alert is a notice and warning to anyone looking at your child’s credit file that your child is a potential victim of identity theft. This alert is a notice to anyone who is considering issuing credit in your name that you will be contacted prior to credit issuance. Fraud alerts may require you to provide a phone number so anyone planning to issue credit can call you for verification if they desire (not mandatory). All fraud alerts are free and can be initiated by calling any one of the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion).
A fraud alert is considered a first step in the process of protecting your credit, and a great idea when you, as a parent or guardian, suspect your child may have been victimized. Whether you have started receiving credit card offers in your child’s name, or your phone is ringing with debt collectors, the initial credit alert is one of your best measures to reduce further fraud. It is a great tool to protect your child during the interim period of suspecting child identity theft and receiving that credit report that tells you exactly what has happened in your child’s name.
Alerts come in several different varieties. The first is a ninety-day alert. This is also often referred to as an initial alert. Initial alerts are quick and easy to place on your child’s credit file but expire in ninety days. The good news is that each ninety days you are allowed to reactivate the alert if needed.
Active duty alerts are for active duty military members and provide them with the same benefits that the initial alert does. The benefit of an active duty alert for military members is that it does not require reactivation every ninety days. The active duty military alert protects military members for twelve months. Extended alerts are available for severe cases and last for seven years. Extended alerts require law enforcement involvement and are allowed in cases where victims’ identities are sold and resold, causing repeated identity theft.
Question #63: How long should I keep an alert on my child’s credit file?
A fraud alert needs to remain on your child’s credit file until you are sure there is no longer an increased threat of identity theft. In other words, ask yourself what it was that caused you to request that a credit alert be placed on the file in the first place, and has that issue been resolved? If so, you can remove the alert, allow it to remain, and elect not to renew it when it expires. It is important to note, though, you may ask that it be renewed if your concerns remain.
There are multiple types of credit file alerts: initial alerts, active duty alerts for military personnel, extended alerts, and credit freezes. If you feel you have been victimized and desire to have a fraud alert placed on your file, any one agency (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion) notified will contact the other two and advise them of the alert. You do not need to contact all three credit reporting agencies, with one exception. Innovis, according to their website, does not share credit reporting information with Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion; thus, you must contact one of the three agencies mentioned above, plus Innovis, to ensure you are covered with all agencies.
Initial alerts are alerts placed on a credit file by a consumer. An individual consumer, or a representative acting on behalf of the consumer, such as a parent or guardian, can request a fraud alert. This alert is placed on a child’s file based on the fact that you suspect he or she has been, or is about to become, the victim of an identity-related crime. Once you place the alert, it is good for ninety days. Leave it on the file and allow it to protect your child until the ninety-day period runs out. At the end of ninety days, it must be renewed. If the issue has been resolved, then great, but if not, then renewal is an option.
If you feel the need to place an alert on your child’s credit file, I suggest you take the proactive measure of putting your home phone number, as well as each family member’s cell phone number, on the government’s Do Not Call Registry. To register your phone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry, go to www.donotcall.gov on the Internet and follow the instructions. This registration will require you to have an e-mail address for verification, but this is a free service and should begin the process of eliminating unwanted calls, solicitors, and harassing sales pitches.
Other considerations a parent or guardian needs to make, if placing a credit alert on a child’s file, are what information they have on their computer, what e-mails they have received, and what security settings are in place. Until you know the source of the theft,
you, as the parent or guardian, must cover all bases. Check your child’s computer for viruses and have him or her report anything suspicious.
Active duty alerts are designed for active duty Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy personnel. The active duty alert has the same effects as an initial credit file alert. The duration of an active duty alert is twelve months. Active duty alerts protect service personnel who do not have the ability to frequently update alerts, such as the initial alert.
An extended alert requires that you submit proof, such as an identity theft report, that you have been victimized. Upon receipt of sufficient proof, a fraud alert will be placed on a consumer’s file for seven years. During the first five years of the seven-year period, the consumer will be excluded from any list of consumers provided to third parties for credit or insurance offers not initiated by you, the consumer. Extended alerts entitle the consumer to more protection for a longer period of time. This includes two free credit file disclosures in a twelve-month period.
Initial, active duty, and extended alerts can be canceled by the consumer at any time. Current laws and policies that govern alerts are subject to change as well. For the latest information and updates on fraud alerts, please visit the FTC website at www.ftc.gov.
Question #64: What is a credit freeze, and under what circumstances should I ask for one for my child?
A credit freeze prohibits the issuance of any further credit in your child’s name, or the use of his or her Social Security number without first contacting you. A credit freeze is more of a permanent step in stopping credit issuance. Credit freezes are sometimes referred to as security freezes.
As just stated, the credit freeze prohibits the issuance of credit without first contacting you. To issue credit, the credit reporting agency must obtain your authorization to lift the freeze either temporarily or permanently. Most credit agencies have the information on their website for obtaining a credit freeze. Upon receipt, the credit agency will issue you a letter containing a confirmation number. To lift the freeze, you must be able to provide the confirmation number when contacted.