W3 Spin|Internet news blog

Studies done by the Federal Trade Commission have shown identity theft against children to be the fastest growing sector reporting complaints of identity theft. In many cases the children can’t even trust their parents to protect them because sadly family members commit the majority of child identity thefts.

Children need to be protected by greedy or misled relatives, and the government must offer them aid. Likewise, corporate financial institutions that have offered forgiveness to adult identity theft victims must develop the same sympathies for child identity theft victims.

Fastest Growing Segment Of Complaints Of Identity Theft

In just two years time, the The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) discovered that the incident of complaints of child identity theft rose from 2% of the total reports to 4%. This is the fastest growing category of identity theft complaints, and is projected to continue in this trend. Many of these crimes were committed years before, and are only noticed as individuals become more aware and begin to look deeper into their children’s credit reports.

The FTC believes that not enough of these crimes are being noticed in adequate time. The FTC estimates that a half of a million children fall victim to identity theft each year, however only about ten- or fifteen thousand are reported annually. Often times the lack of incident reporting is because the people who are responsible to protect the child from such theft are the one’s stealing their identity.

Majority Of Child Identity Thefts Committed By Family Members

Close family members or parents are at the root of more that 50% of complaints of identity theft against a child. Identities were usually stolen in times of great need, to pay for utilities, food, or prevent the loss of a vehicle.

A ruined credit report can be debilitating for a child five or ten years down the road, but parents typically the parents justify their criminal behavior by claiming it was for the best of the child at the time. It is not usually the intention of the parent to permanently damage their child’s credit history.

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