News
Child Identity Theft Articles
Child identity theft: Why you should worry
July 11, 2011
By Mitch Lipka
http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-wealth/2011/07/11/child-identity-theft-why-you-should-worry/
Michelle Dennedy’s daughter Reilly is nine and already has had her identity stolen twice. Earlier this year Dennedy, who lives in California, learned that the most recent use of Reilly’s identity was to get utilities set up in Arizona.
Government Turns Spotlight on Child ID Theft Problem
June 24, 2011
By: Marcia Frellick
How Much Privacy Does My Kid Give Up in an Hour?
June 1, 2011
By Christiana Tynan-Wood
I’m settled in a comfy chair watching my baby (age 12) trade away her privacy as she does homework, shops, plays silly games, and exchanges mindless repartee with her friends. In an hour online, she has given up countless secrets.
Kids with mortgages, credit card bills and auto loans
What happens when identity thieves target children.
May 29, 2011
By Eileen Ambrose
“Parents have no idea that their children’s identities have been stolen until they have become adults and find that their credit report says they are in debt,” said Steven Toporoff, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission’s division of privacy and identity protection
Facebook’s efforts to protect children’s privacy are “indefensible,” senator charges
May 20, 2011
Facebook’s use of only 100 employees to monitor the posts of 600 million users to ensure that children under the age of 13 are not using the social networking site is “completely indefensible,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-Va.) during a Thursday Senate hearing on consumer privacy.
Targgeting Neopoets.com users for credit cards
By Mark Frauenfelder
May 20, 2011
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/05/20/targeting-neopetscom.html
Neopets.com won’t tell Beverly Blair Harzog how her daughter’s user’s name for the site ended up on credit card solicitations. “It was in November 1999 that Neopets.com hit the scene. Kids loved it. I mean, really, really loved it. The computer game allowed them to create and take care of virtual pets in Neopia”
Duff leads senate in approving child ID theft loophole
By Senator Duff’s office
May 13, 2011
Hartford, CT – Under legislation approved by the state Senate today, individuals who fraudulently use a minor’s personal identifying information could face severe felony charges. State Senator Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), the co-chair of the General Assembly’s Banks Committee who led the Senate in approving the bill today, said that the legislation closes a loophole in state law that put children at risk of identity theft.
Report: Child ID theft on the rise
By Bob Sullivan, MSNBC
April 1, 2011
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/01/6502565-report-child-id-theft-on-the-rise
“Child ID theft, among the more tragic and vexing 21st Century crimes,
is much more common than previously thought, suggests a report being
published Friday by a Carnegie Mellon University fellow.
Data examined by Richard Power, a distinguished fellow at the school’s
CyLab research center, offers hints that identity thieves are
specially targeting children when picking victims.
“They make perfect targets because they have no records and don’t
discover the crime for years,” he said.”
Child Identity Theft: A Lot of Questions Need to Be Answered, But the
Most Important One is “Has It Happened to Your Child?”
By Richard Power, CyLab Carnegie Melon
April 1, 2011
http://www.cyblog.cylab.cmu.edu/
“Wouldn’t you want to know if your eight-year-old was in foreclosure
on a home in another state? Wouldn’t you want to know if your three-
year-old was in collection for a huge utility bill across town?
Wouldn’t you want to know that if someone somewhere had a hunting
license in the name of your five-year-old? Wouldn’t you want to know
that your nine-year-old had a driver’s license and a car registered in
his or her name? Wouldn’t you rather find out now than on when he or
she is applying for student loans on the eve of going away to college?”
Child identity theft is on the rise
By John Moe
Marketplace, April 4, 2011
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/04/tech-report-child-id-theft/
“A research fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab is out with a new report
today about child identity theft. The first large report about this
ever. And the findings are pretty staggering. Children are 51 times
more likely to suffer from identity theft than adults. Parents just
aren’t focused on this issue.”
Debix: Ten Percent of Children Are Victims of Identity Theft
By Robert Vamosi, Forbes
April 15, 2011
http://blogs.forbes.com/firewall/2011/04/15/debix-ten-percent-of-children-are-victims-of-identity-theft/
“In the first report of its kind, Debix, an identity protection
services company, found the identity theft victimization rate among
children was 10 percent last year, or fifty-one times the .2 percent
of identity theft within the adult population.”
Identity Thieves Using Wireless Technology
June 15, 2011
By Jenni Lee
It’s a crime that sees 10 million victims a year. Now, it’s easier to commit identity theft.
Radio frequency identification is not new but its unexplored technology. It’s allowing thieves to walk next to you while you’re having a cup of coffee and swipe your information.
June 7, 2011
By Anne Carrns
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/companies-offer-free-versions-of-identity-theft-services/
The recent spate of computer hacking and security breaches has heightened interest in credit and identity-theft monitoring services. Two companies, TrustedID and Debix, have started offering free versions of their surveillance systems.