A Silent Threat: Protecting Children From Identity Theft The PaymentsJournal Podcast

As awareness of the dangers of identity theft grows, it’s important to highlight a particularly insidious threat: stealing children’s identities. Although children have very limited financial activity, this ironically makes them appealing targets for fraudsters.   







According to Javelin Strategy & Research, 1.7 million children had their personal information stolen in 2021-2022, resulting in nearly $1 billion in identity fraud loss. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Tracy Kitten, Director of Fraud and Security at Javelin, explained what makes children so vulnerable to identity theft and what parents and guardians can do to protect them.





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Child’s Play







Obtaining a child’s personal information is alarmingly straightforward. When a criminal gets a child’s Social Security number, along with their physical mailing address and/or date of birth, that criminal possesses enough information to commit various forms of fraud, such as fraudulently opening bank accounts or applying for loans using the child’s information. 







The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated risks to children’s identities. Government recovery programs, in particular, saw a fair amount of stimulus-related fraud. Additionally, the increase in online transactions revealed authentication gaps that were challenging to address. While strides have been made to close some of those gaps over the past year, vulnerabilities still exist. 







What’s tempting about using children’s identities is that they have no complicated background to deal with. “These kids don’t have bad credit,” Kitten said. “They don’t have any credit at all; so any type of account could be opened with a clean slate, maybe even a job application for someone who is here illegally.







What’s more, parents don’t readily detect this type of fraud. Since children aren’t applying for credit cards or mortgage loans, identity theft is not noticed until the child has reached maturity. 







More Information in the Wild







For many of us, our Social Security numbers, along with our email addresses and passwords, are floating around the dark web. We’ve become more adept at handling breached information and are increasingly mindful about the information we share about ourselves online. However, all it takes is one slip—such as the exposure of your Social security number—to cause significant and long-term challenges.  







“We like to think that the government is this well-oiled mac...