16. Identity Theft from Children
How Bad Is the Problem?
A study done by Carnegie Mellon CyLab found that the incidence of identity theft was 51 times greater for children than for adults. The Federal Trade Commission estimated that between 2003 and 2011 child identity theft increased more than 300 percent.
Why Would Anyone Want to Steal the Identity of a Child?
Why would anyone want to steal the identity of a child? At first, it would seem that being able to access the credit of a child would not be particularly valuable to an identity thief; however, the truth is that identity theft from children is growing tremendously and with good reason—it pays.
When an identity thief steals the Social Security number of a child, the identity thief can ...
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