According to a recent study conducted by AllClear
ID, children are 35 times more likely to have their identity stolen than adults. This may
seem like an odd and shocking statistic, but when you really think about the
circumstances, it makes perfect sense. From the time a child is born to the
time they start using their social security number for applications such as
credit cards, there is a lot of unused time. These untouched social
security numbers are lingering in cyberspace waiting to get tampered with.
Due to constructs such as social media, finding out other personal information
such as birthday and full name are easily obtained through minor research. ID
theft in children has become a huge issue that many families are not aware
of and therefore have little education on preventing it.
There are many steps that families can take to protect their
children. Some experts suggest having early credit checks performed for their
children as early as 16-years-old. Many
states are enforcing special programs to help increase fraud prevention
measures when dealing with children. Even though families may be at the highest
risks, business need to well educated on this matter as well. Financial
institutions that process these stolen identities will face the consequences in some sort in the end. It is important to have strong ID verification
and authentication measures implemented in your fraud prevention strategy
to help prevent this type of ID theft.
[Contributed by, EVS marketing]
