Many parents are not aware of how Identity Thieves are coming across our children's personal information. Child Identity Theft has risen over the past years to 10% out of 10 million identity theft cases in America in 2010. As technology increases more companies, daycare's, and schools are shifting along with this technology paradigm, therefore allowing our children's information to be more vulnerable to intruders from cyberspace. Not to mention that much of the identity theft begins with employees that have access to other employee, customer, and student information.
How Is Your Pre-Schooler At Risk?
For starters, lots of mothers and fathers don't realize that all an identity thief needs to begin destroying your toddlers pristine credit, is their social security number. All other specifics of your children are not needed because these criminals use their own name and age to associate with your child's social when opening lines of credit, mortgages, or any other accounts that require a credit check. We put our children's information out in places we least think are possible to lose such sensitive data. Schools, day cares, doctor clinics, and other extra curricular activities are examples of places for identity crooks to obtain your children's social security number. We put so much faith in these places to secure the data of our children but in reality many of these places have already experienced this type of crime, and it all starts with the people who work there who are handling this information.
What To Do To Ensure Your Child's Information Is Secured?
There are certain establishments that make it mandatory for you to show your child's social security number in order to meet certain criteria. Places like public schools, day cares, medical facilities, and some after school programs are just unavoidable. However, here are 3 steps to ensure you at least know how your child's information is being handled:
1. Certain places and extra curricular activities require that they have a copy of your child's personal information on file. Schools usually only need the birth certificate and vaccination records of your child, not their social security number. If the school is persistent on having their social security number, first ask to speak to an administrator and ask why they must have a copy of the social on file. If their is not enough reason to believe that they must have it on file, do not be afraid to express the prevention you practice on identity theft.
2. If your child's information must be on file, come prepared with your own copies. Note: Try to avoid using any public copy machines, including school photocopiers because most machines save copies on their hard drives in unencrypted format, therefore making it easier for anyone with access to these machines to pull out the stored copies.
3. When asked to have your child's most sensitive data on file, do not falter, but rather ask with up-most concern on how this information will be kept safe and secure. Do not hesitate to ask to speak with an administrator to find out exactly who and when does anyone have access to your children's data once it is on file. If they fail to give you details or simply can not answer you, then it makes you wonder if they have any security policy at all to protect your preschoolers information.
In conclusion...
Pre-Schoolers are not the only children you have to worry about. If you are a parent of any child under the age of 18, you also should have much concern. Identity criminals are not only focusing on pre-school children, but any child for that matter. Do not be fooled in believing that an identity thief must first physically steal your child's info in order to commit this crime. These crooks are so advanced they only have to take a few guesses at your child's social security number because these numbers all stand for a pattern. A pattern in which they were able to decipher and now no longer need to physically steal a thing from parents. The most important thing a parent can do to prevent this from happening to their child is to have Awareness. There are ways to start protecting ourselves and our children from the identity thieves
A Review of Krolls Identity Theft Shield Program The Urgency of ID Theft Prevention
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