To prevent your family from becoming a victim, buy a paper shredder. Most shredding devices are long cut, or vertical. I recommend you go one step further and buy a cross-cutting paper shredder. This cuts paper items into confetti-like, small pieces of paper. Smaller pieces are much more difficult to put back together.
To better protect your family, the following items should be destroyed by a paper shredder versus disposing of the items in the trash:
Insurance papers no longer needed, desired, and required
Child birth certificate copies
Old elementary, middle, or high school information that contains identifiers such as birth date, Social Security number, or address
Old school transcript copies
Old child library cards
Old photo identification cards
Old mail in your child’s name
Any unnecessary legal documents, such as old court orders
Old medical records
Old X-rays that are no longer needed
School report cards from previous years that you plan to discard
Old tax returns you no longer need or are required to maintain
Bank account information in your child’s name you plan to discard
Any investment paperwork that does not need to be retained
Advertisements your child receives
Letters your child receives after they have served their purpose
Paper shredders are relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of losing your child’s identity. Be proactive in protecting your child’s identity by destroying all discarded items in a proper manner. Shredding is a great way to protect your family.
Question #89: Where is the best place to keep official documents relating to my children?
Have you ever had to prove who you were to someone you did not know? It was probably simple because you either had the “proof” required or, in the case of your child, they did not require proof because of their age. Two things have changed as a result of the devastating events of September 11, 2001. The first is that more people and agencies are requiring proof of identity. The second is that required types of proof for identification purposes is strengthening.
When you couple the two facts above with the surge in identity theft to the tune of approximately nine million victims each year, victims find themselves losing the battle when you don’t have identifying documents. The end result is that it has become more and more difficult to have someone “accept your word” for identification purposes. Proof of identification might be a driver’s license, birth certificate, student identification, bank statement, or passport. Your requirements to obtain these documents are usually a combination of different forms of identification along with a signature, and in some cases, a witness. No need to worry about not having identifying documents, though. The paperwork identifying us begins before we are born with prenatal doctor and hospital visits paving the way for our birth.
Once a child is born, the birth certificate starts the accumulation of mountains of documents we personally need to keep up with throughout our lifetime. So given this, as well as the fact that we are a society of paperwork, how do we do it? How do we safeguard the endless amounts of paperwork and documents we receive and, in particular, how do we safely protect our children’s identification documentation?
For some people, documents find their way into a dresser drawer. Others put their documents in a home office or closet. Where is the best place in your home to store documents? Is it in an office, a bedroom, or a closet? Is it under a bed or on top of a shelf? Is it best kept locked or unlocked, and quickly accessible?
The layout of every home is different, and the personal preferences of each homeowner will vary. What is consistent is that each child in your home has personal information that needs some type of protection. The best security is the most stringent. Not everyone, though, can afford the monthly cost of a bank safety deposit box.
I recommend the following commonsense approach. Buy a fireproof document container that provides a locking-type security system. Purchase one that is large enough to hold the family documents you need, or purchase more than one of the same type. These containers should be placed somewhere in the home where parents or guardians can access them, but they are not out in the open; you should be able to get to them without too much trouble.
I am frequently asked about the policy of copying documents and giving these copies to a close family member in case the original is destroyed, stolen, or lost. The possibility of child identity theft by a relative always exists, so you should be cautious to release personal identification records to even family members. If you feel you need to secure a copy of identification records with a trusted relative, you should still monitor your child’s credit history by obtaining a credit report yearly.
If you select a locked, fireproof container and a good place in the home to secure it, what documents should you put inside for protection? I recommend the following:
Birth certificates
Passports
Insurance papers
Marriage certificates
School diplomas
Account passwords
Military discharge papers
Sensitive medical records
Automobile titles
Wills
Property deeds
Safe deposit box keys
Home inventories
Banking information
Video of the inside of your home for insurance purposes
In the case of your death, a list of any person who maintains the possession of any item for safekeeping in another location, and how they can be contacted
Documents relating to your children require the proper safe care. The choice of how you do it is ultimately up to you. The higher level of security you provide for your family’s documents, the better chance they have of not being lost, stolen, or destroyed, and thus available for your continued use when needed. Good luck.
Question #90: How can I protect myself and my child when using search engines and websites?
There are many search engines, but not all are age appropriate. Age-appropriate search engines and websites are those designed specifically for children and young adults. These sites provide information according to the appropriate age category. Listed below are websites that are appropriate for children of different ages. In addition to the sites listed, good resources for children can be found by contacting your child’s school library and the public library in your community.
Elementary School Age
www.kidspace.org
www.askkids.com
www.yahooligans.com
www.ivyjoy.com
www.kidrex.org
www.kidsclick.org (School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University)
www.pctattletale.com
www.brainpopjr.com
www.ipl.org (Internet Public Library)
www.kidskonnect.com
www.kids.yahoo.com
Middle School/Junior High School Age
www.askkids.com
www.awesomelibrary.org
www.brainpop.com
www.ipl.org (Internet Public Library)
www.kidsclick.org (School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University)
www.kidskonnect.com
www.kids.yahoo.com
www.eia.gov/kids/index.cfm (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
www.gennasworld.com
www.education.com
www.whattablast.com
High School Age
www.awesomelibrary.org
www.bbc.co.uk/learning
www.ipl.org (Internet Public Library)
www.kidsclick.org (School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University)
www.eia.gov/kids/index.cfm (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
www.education.com
You control your family policies on web usage and sites visited. In addition to discussing a
ppropriate computer usage with your children and young adults, you can take certain proactive security measures for computers in the home. These measures include establishing blocks for inappropriate websites and controlling your privacy settings to block unsafe pop-ups.
Question #91: What can schools do to help safeguard students from child identity theft?
An important step in protecting children is to provide education on child identity theft, its aspects, and the harmful effects of not implementing steps to prevent victimization. What seems to be a complex topic is anything but that when you teach age-appropriate aspects of the crime. Child identity theft awareness can be taught by schools and reinforced by parents, or vice versa.
Parents understand the influence that mandatory standardized testing, such as Standards of Learning–type tests, has on school curriculums. Child identity theft is like any other social topic that competes for space with mandated educational topics. The ability to get on the school’s curriculum may entirely depend on the prioritization the school administration gives the issue. Schools will be best positioned to help if they have community support or outcry.
The topic of child identity theft is not one that you can just insert into an educational curriculum at a certain grade level. While it is imperative to ensure children are mature enough to grasp the concept of what is being taught, child identity theft education should be continuous. This mindset would allow administrators to begin teaching the dangers of child identity theft to our children at age-appropriate levels throughout their adolescent years. This approach would reinforce the impact of being victimized. Otherwise, children will not have the benefit of the tools necessary to protect themselves from identity theft, making them easier targets.
A better approach is a total partnership between parents and teachers. Parents who are committed to protecting their children begin to emphasize what personal information is, and with whom they are allowed to share it. The best situation to work with is when a schoolteacher of a younger grade level, such as kindergarten or first grade, has a group of children who have a concept of their name, age, and birthday. If allowed within the school system, the teacher could help educate the children on the importance of protecting their name, address, and birthday, as an example, from other classmates, just as they would protect their schoolwork in a protected folder, area, or cubicle. A teacher could use many analogies to help children understand at an earlier age the importance of respecting personal space, and the security of their personal information. This type of coordinated effort between the home and the school administration will help bring more attention to the matters of child identity theft.
As a child mentally develops during the elementary school years, they develop a better concept of personal information and grow in their ability to grasp additional information about themselves. Additional information learned will probably be simple things, such as their telephone number and address. As the child progresses into middle or junior high school, the need progresses for more complex information, such as their Social Security number. Children will begin using computers with, and without, their parents or guardians, operating with a little more freedom.
High school brings the desire to be more independent. Making decisions outside the home away from parents is a very normal transition. This is the age for more complex computer security discussions on topics such as “hard” passwords, security settings, pop-ups, and scams. This is also the appropriate age for an education on finances. Some school systems do teach topics such as checkbook management for young adults. In some educational jurisdictions, a personal finance course is required for a child to graduate from high school. In such a course, it is imperative that our children are taught not only how to open a bank account, balance a checkbook, and pay bills on time, but to protect themselves against identity theft.
The financial crimes in society today mandate a better knowledge of financial issues for children at all ages. Along with the teaching of basic math and checkbook management must be a reinforcement and furtherance of education on child identity theft. This could be a joint project taught with computer and mathematics instructors to enhance all aspects of the mechanisms identity thieves use to get information.
You can help your children. Make it a priority to discuss the topic of a high school financial management course, which includes identity theft, with both your school administration and your school board leaders. Identity theft is a topic that we need to learn at all levels of primary education and retain for the rest of our lives.
Question #92: How might age verification of Social Security numbers help prevent child identity theft?
If your ten-year-old tried to get a credit card right now, his application may or may not be denied. Theoretically we would like to believe it would be denied because he is too young to enter into a contract. However, if a thief steals your child’s Social Security number and applies for a card under your child’s name changing the year of birth, there is currently no way to know that something is amiss. The reason is the credit-issuing agencies lack a system of age verification, and for this reason, child identity theft flourishes.
A child identity thief does not have to have all of your child’s data. The thief may use a portion of your identity only, as described in “synthetic” identity theft. In either case, the result will probably be the same, issuance of credit using all or a portion of your child’s information. Using any of your child’s information causes your loved one to accumulate a bad credit record. Bad credit brings the potential for debt collectors and courts to take action against your child and you, as the parent or guardian.
Lack of age-verification capability is a constant factor among all credit-issuing agencies. These agencies recommend credit when queried by credit card companies, lenders, businesses, and more. The systems thrive on “first information submitted.” This means that when they have no record of your child, they accept the first submission as the truth, even though an identity thief may have submitted it.
The combination of nonexistent age verification, lack of a birth record system tied into credit issuance, and a Death Master File system without the ability to capture all deaths spells disaster for identity theft victims. These factors allow a child identity thief to scour the newspapers for an infant who has died, because the hospital will be sure to record the birth, but the Death Master File might not capture the death. The same scenario exists for child identity thieves who comb graveyards looking for information.
When a thief obtains your child’s information first, they can submit for the Social Security number. This is true whether the child dies and a thief gets his or her information, or whether the thief just gets the information to the Social Security Administration before you do. The end result is that the thief will get the Social Security number and immediately begin to apply for credit in your child’s name or number.
So what can parents do to assist their children or protect them where systems do not exist to verify age? Parents can help by understanding child identity theft and put into action the information in this book that provides children with the best protection possible. The first safe practice is to obtain a child’s birth certificate at the hospital, and to do so at the earliest opportunity. It should be one of many questions expecting parents ask their hospital staff. As your hospital care team, what is the procedure for obtaining a state birth record or certificate upon birth? Resist the option to obtain the birth certificate at a later date. Any lapse in time is an opportunity for a child identity thief. Next, in planning your trip to the hospital, expecting parents should either visit the Social Security Administration office, or go to their website at www.ssa.gov, and have the Form SS-5 ready for completion and submission as soon as possible.
If you are adopting a child, you need to know if the child has a Social Security number already. If he or she does not, then you might want to wait until you change the child’s last name, if that is your plan. In either case, parents seeking to adopt chil
dren should take advantage of the annual free credit report and view their child’s credit report to see if they have been victimized. Remember the problems foster children face with repeated credit abuse? Do not fall victim to those statistics; follow the steps recommended here, and help guide adopted children on a path to success.
Age verification can stop a large portion of child identity theft. The lack of an age verification system is why children are fifty-one times more likely to be successfully victimized with this financial crime. Until a nation or country can get to the point where it has a system in place, parents shoulder the burden of putting into action their own personal protection plan, and “best practice.” Use the information in this book to help you.
Question #93: What are modeling scams, and how can they affect my child’s identity?
Child identity theft prevention comes in many forms. Scams are a tool often used by thieves, so information on types of scams will help you as a parent. One popular scam deals with modeling offers. Modeling scams can affect children of all ages and their parents. Legitimate modeling agencies hire children every day to be in television ads, magazine ads, and newspaper ads.
Children are selected by agencies to represent clothing brands, food items, tourist attractions, and more. Modeling as an industry is legitimate and lucrative, but unregulated. Since modeling does not require government oversight, anyone can be a model, or open an agency. Thieves who use scams as their tool understand a child’s desire to be rich, famous, and popular. They know the things to say to children, and the promises to make.
Scammers often use the computer and Internet as their contact method. These allow for anonymous contact from great distances. Foreign countries, such as Nigeria, are infamous for initiating scams. For years, scams, such as the “Nigerian Scam” and the “419 Scam,” have plagued the United States, and countries around the world, bilking millions of dollars out of unsuspecting citizens. Foreign scammers use modeling as just one type of scam; they can send their bait in phishing e-mails to children, hoping they will reply.
Child Identity Theft Page 21