Do you provide your students with any education on what child identity theft is?
Have you discussed child identity theft with your school administration?
Does your school system do background checks on all employees in every role?
Does your school limit the sharing of student information to those who need to know, such as the child’s actual teacher and not just a school system employee?
Have you discussed the topic of child identity theft with parent-teacher association (PTA) leaders at your school, and with parents at a PTA meeting or other forum?
Have you contacted your state police, local police, or sheriff’s office to see if they have an officer who can come to your school and speak on child identity theft?
Does your school encourage reporting suspicious acts?
Does your school have a visitor badge system?
As a teacher, you are recognized as a select respected group within society that develops and cares for children not their own. Teachers can best make a difference with this new crime by being a catalyst for education and change. Child identity theft steals a child’s chance for a fresh start as an adult; thus, education of parents, school system employees, and students are a must if we are to defeat this crime. While parents can influence the child and the system from outside, teachers can influence both from within.
Question #84: My child is in day care. What precautions should I take to protect their identity?
Protecting your child begins with the selection of your day care facility. Your selection process begins with a list of the items you desire in care. Most parents seek a day care that is certified by the state as approved. This approval usually means that they understand the state’s mandates for care. Many states regulate and license child day care centers. In addition to the licensing process, state licensing representatives visit and inspect conditions for compliance.
State licensing representatives may look at the functional design of the business location, the ratio of care providers to children, the presence of asbestos, and the presence of proper fire extinguishing equipment. They may require a criminal background check of all employees. They will probably set high standards for good hygiene. Your state will most likely govern and regulate many other items, but one area they will likely fall short in is identification security and identity theft.
Your choice of location should include a center that will protect your child’s information. Look at the forms they require. What personal data are they asking for? Once they receive it, how are they set up to secure it? When finished with the document, what do they do with it? Do they have a shredder? If they have computers, are they entering your child’s information in them? If so, do they password-protect the computers?
When you search for your desired child day care center, you should be considering the safety of your child, and in doing so, visually inspect the security. Good security starts on the outside of the building with video cameras, fencing, and play areas that are safely away from the road. It continues to the inside with secure files and locked drawers to protect children’s personal information. It also includes computers with hard passwords and computer monitors out of the view of the public.
Inquire how employees are screened. Ask if all employees are screened with background checks or just employees who directly care for the children. Remember that clerical, administrative, and janitorial staff play a role in child identity theft due to their access to information. Ask who will have access to your child’s information, both during and after hours. Ask if there is a system at the care facility where the children wear identification bracelets, necklaces, or tags during the care hours for tracking should a child get lost or taken.
Most day care providers do a good job of focusing on the physical care of their children. However, they most likely do not understand child identity theft and how their actions and facility figure into the equation. Do not be surprised if you, as the parent or guardian, are more educated on the topic of child identity theft than the day care provider. This is a good opportunity to team your provider up with a law enforcement crime prevention specialist. A crime prevention specialist can help the day care facility staff understand the aspects and elements of child identity theft, and the positive changes that their day care environment can make to prevent a theft occurrence at their location.
Should you decide to leave the day care and switch to another, it is important that you retrieve any remaining paperwork they have on your child. Once your child permanently leaves the day care facility, they will have less reason to secure the information. Ask the provider for a letter stating that they have permanently deleted any and all information on your child from their computer systems. You will want to ask for any individual records a teacher, supervisor, or employee may have been keeping on your child. Lastly, ask them if your child may have left behind any remaining property to include clothes, backpacks, or lunch boxes. These are important steps that must be taken by you as the protector of your child’s identification information.
Question #85: What is “cramming,” and what can I do about it?
Cramming is a scam, and it can happen to both children and adults. Cramming happens when an organization bills its customer, adding charges that the customer did not authorize or agree to. If your child orders a magazine subscription, automated delivery of a product, a monthly service, or any item for which they are billed, they could get scammed through cramming if you are not diligent in viewing the bill each time it comes in.
Cramming affects young adults more often than small children because young adults are more involved in purchasing, ordering, and subscribing to services that require billing. Cramming is increasingly difficult to uncover, since many bills are directly sent to teenagers through e-mail. Most businesses try to get customers to agree to a paperless delivery of their bill in order to reduce billing costs. While this is a savings to the business, it does little to help parents.
Parents need to insist that when bills are sent to their children, the parent also receives a copy. Parents should be familiar with the service and the agreed-upon terms from the start. Each bill received should be cautiously reviewed for items within the bill. Added fees, purchases, and items not originally agreed upon need to be questioned. Dispute any item that you or your child did not approve before delivery. Cancel any service that dishonestly added an item, even if they claim it was a mistake.
Cramming can happen in any bill. Some bills are easy to review, and some are not. An example is a phone bill. Deciphering the federal fees, state taxes, and local charges can be complex. Businesses who cram take advantage of this fact and add not-agreed-upon costs to your bill. Your best weapon is your ability to call and dispute, or cancel, the service.
As with your phone bill, a very important point to make is that cramming does not always involve large fees or big-purchase items. Remember, small items add up when you bill a multitude of people successfully. Many businesses have thousands of customers. If each customer is billed a small fee of fifty cents or one dollar without question, then the business has the opportunity to make hundreds or thousands of dollars. If only a few people question the fee, then the multitude make the fraud worth the cramming. Once the cramming charge remains on the bill without question, it becomes legitimate in the mind of the consumer, who is even less likely to question it than before.
Parents who find cramming charges should take action. Cramming should be reported to the Better Business Bureau. Reporting puts both the business and other potential consumers on notice that the business has questionable practices. A negative rating with the Better Business Bureau alerts consumers that a business is potentially a bad investment of both time and money, and should be avoided.
How can you help reduce cramming incidents? Deal only with reputable businesses. Avoid enter-to-win sweepstakes that request your personal information. Avoid “join the club” services that indicate all you have to do is provide your name and authorization for
the service. Things too good to be true usually are. Avoid “free” calls that start with 1-900 (***-****). 900 numbers are not free; they are charging you by the minute for your call.
A good resource for cramming is the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network. This network can be viewed on the web at http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/. The Consumer Sentinel is a resource for consumer tips, statistics, and data collection. Check it out; it is worth the time.
Question #86: How can I keep up with ever-evolving scams?
If you look at scams conducted across the nation, you will see that the most common trait among them is not the age, race, geographical area, or financial status of the potential victim, but rather the scammers’ desire to make quick and easy money. Scams do target specific groups of individuals, such as children, but they do it for monetary reasons. Thieves see vulnerability and seize the opportunity. This is very common not only with children, but also elderly adults.
The ultimate goal of a scam is to get you to part with your money. It is not that you will not question the transaction, but you will ultimately carry through with it. Seldom do thieves come back to the person scammed unless the case is child identity theft. In child identity theft, thieves repeatedly victimize the child because the child is completely unaware the crime has been committed.
Just as quickly as you catch on to scams, others seem to evolve. This is a daily challenge for law enforcement. Before you can completely understand a crime and evolutions of the initial crime, thieves are on to the next new crime. Child identity theft is just such a crime. What starts with identity theft becomes a bonanza when the thieves discover they can target children instead of adults and increase their profit hundreds of times over with repeated use. This is the number-one reason that children are fifty-one times more likely to be targeted than adults.
Fortunately, law enforcement has many tools available to assist parents and guardians with fraud cleanup. Citizens also have ways they can educate themselves on trending crimes and how to report them. One of the tools available to consumers is the Consumer Sentinel Network. The Consumer Sentinel Network provides information on identity theft, Do Not Call violations, telemarketing, computer crimes, sweepstakes, lotteries, prize scams, work-from-home scams, weight loss scams, and loan scams.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offers excellent resources for citizens seeking information on scams. These educational resources can be viewed through their website and include education on how to protect your children from crimes. You may research this information on the FBI website at www.fbi.gov.
A visit to the site can offer you information on the latest scam trending. The website also offers information on a wide range of scams, including jury duty scams, financial scams, common fraud scams, dating scams, and tips for potential senior victims. Looking to protect your child? This site gives you information on club drugs, crimes against children, missing and exploited children, gangs, and gun safety.
You can help the FBI prevent terrorism and terrorist attacks, thereby increasing the safety of your children. Have you observed something lately that appeared out-of-the-ordinary, such as someone taking photographs, making maps, recording activities, or conducting surveillance outside of a government building, military facility, or a local or national landmark?
If you ever witness suspicious activities, report them. The information you share may be just what the FBI needs to uncover a threat, or solve a crime. Your commitment to share information regarding illegal activity will help law enforcement reduce crime in your community.
Other great scam resources include the Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/. Scams are committed by unscrupulous individuals. While keeping up with scams can be challenging, it comes down to determination. Scams can be defeated with a concerted effort by law enforcement, the media, and citizen involvement.
Question #87: How do I make sure I’m not carrying things in my wallet that could open my child up to identity theft?
In the late 1600s, a pocket-sized tool was invented to store cash and other small articles of value. This invention was timely, as a paper-style currency followed in the late 1690s. Prior to the wallet, the common item used to carry money was a drawstring-type bag, as the available currency was coinage. Now we fast-forward to the twentieth century and the development of the billfold-type wallet for cash and credit cards, an identity thief’s best friend.
At some point in a young boy’s life, he will receive his first wallet. At or about the same time, if not before, a young girl will receive her first purse. Mom and dad will encourage them to put his or her name and address in the item to identify its owner, because they feel it certainly will be lost, misplaced, or forgotten. Thus, the ritual of carrying a wallet or purse with identity information begins. For those who have never suffered the misplacement, loss, or theft of such a device, read on. For those who have, I am confident you can relate to what I am about to explain.
During the past four years, at least three different news organizations have written articles on a Salt Lake City man who has been victimized by identity theft for over seventeen years.1,2 His predator was a German immigrant who, in 2007, was charged with eighty-one counts of identity theft. The ordeal began back in 1985 when he lost his wallet. The lost wallet contained his birth certificate, driver’s license, and Social Security card. The first crime committed using the victim’s identity was driving under the influence. This was followed by vandalism, burglary, leaving the scene of an accident, making a bomb threat, and more.
Identity theft can happen to individuals of all ages. It can happen to the child who leaves a purse or wallet behind because they do not understand the value of his or her name and date of birth. It can happen to the elderly woman who cannot remember where she left her purse, or the middle-aged businessman who is so busy he leaves even his car keys in places he cannot remember.
What you carry in your wallet does say a lot about you. It can tell an objective party, such as a thief, where you live, who you are, when you were born, and what your Social Security number is. It can also tell a thief who your creditors are. Thieves get some idea of whether or not you have income when they see the number of credit card companies willing to give you credit.
Whether you are a parent, guardian, or family member of a child, chances are that you carry a wallet or purse with photos and information about your children close to you. In most cases, if you carry your child’s Social Security card, or name and date of birth written on a piece of paper, you are not alone. Carrying your child’s information in your purse or wallet increases the risk that your child will be victimized.
Most parents who lose a purse or wallet, whether it is momentarily or for a longer period of time, are thrilled when it is returned. The returned item is usually visually inventoried quickly for money and then forgotten. The danger of lost or misplaced articles is that a child identity thief takes nothing, but records everything. Let me reiterate that. A child identity thief takes nothing, but records everything.
Child identity thieves do not want to raise your suspicion and cause alarm. They want to successfully use your child’s identity for long periods of time. This is why you might get your article of value back without missing cash, credit cards, or other items that may give the appearance of theft. My recommendation is that you go back through the items in your purse or wallet and look for anything out of place.
You should carefully review your wallet or purse for any suspicious activity. Is your driver’s license put back the way you usually carry it? Are all the photos placed the correct way? Are the photos in the order in which you normally carry them? Is any portion of your photo holder torn where someone may have had trouble getting an old photo out? If you carry a purse, have the items been moved from one compartment to another? If you carry a wallet, can you tell if someone has been through your items even though you have all the cash?
Parents
need to continuously think “child identity theft.” Whereas, in the past, the most you might have done in the case of a theft was to cancel your credit cards, now you have to go one or two steps further. If you lose an item that carries valuables, you need to place a ninety-day credit alert on your credit file, as well as on the credit file of each of your children. After the ninety-day alert, request a free credit report to ensure both you and your children were not victimized.
Question #88: How can a paper shredder protect my child?
One of the best home and office security devices is not an alarm, but rather a paper-shredding device. This is essential for properly destroying documents with personal information. Most individuals will tear paper documents before throwing them in the trash. Have childhood games and puzzles not taught us for many years that things taken apart can be reassembled to reveal a picture? If a child can re-create a puzzle, surely an adult can piece together torn-up identification information. The difference: an adult is not playing a game.
When contemplating whether to shred your paperwork or not, look at the definition of trash. Trash is something discarded or no longer desired or wanted. This is not only a layman’s version, but a legal interpretation by courts as well. It opens your trash up to being rifled through by whoever has access to it once it leaves your possession. It is what the court refers to when they say that you no longer have an “expectation of privacy” involving what you have thrown away.
It is not uncommon for individuals who live in rural areas to dispose of their garbage in large roadside dumpsters. Even more common is the sight of someone going through those garbage dumpsters seeking that one great find they just can’t believe someone threw away. It happens every day, in every rural community in the world.
Identity theft operates in the same manner. You discard your trash, and someone picks it up. Garbage rifling or dumpster diving is common for identity thieves. Thieves use this method because they are successful with it. Those who live in rural areas are not the only victims: trash is trash. Most people who live in urban areas have no idea where their garbage goes once they dispose of it; they just want to get rid of it. Regardless of your system of trash disposal, all trash is susceptible to identity thieves.
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