Thread: How your child's stolen identity can be used

How your child's stolen identity can be used
By Brigitte Yuille • Bankrate.com


In many cases, a criminal steals an identity in order to use the victim's credit. But in most cases, a child has no credit to steal. So why is child identity theft a growing problem?


Who steals a child's identity?


Experts say a child's stolen identity can be used by:


1. Immigrants seeking to establish a legal identity.
2. Someone with bad credit trying to establish new credit.
3. Someone within the family.
4. Criminals trying to establish new identities.




1. Immigrants seeking to establish a legal identity. Detective Brian Money of the Economic Crimes Unit of the Riverside Police Department in Riverside, Calif., says his department is quite familiar with the child identity theft problem. Two officers in the department have children whose identities were stolen.

"The most significant one that comes to mind is a case where one of our officer's 1½-year-old child was a victim of fraudulent Social Security number use. The thief was using the child's Social Security number to work and obtain credit," says Money.

He says police had possible addresses for the suspect, who apparently used his real name. Money decided to create a "ruse" letter, which is a letter to trick the suspect into coming into the police station.

"The letter stated that the suspect had been involved in a hit-and-run collision in our city. I asked that he come in and bring his vehicle for examination," says Money.

Since he wasn't actually involved in the fake accident, the suspect willingly came in. The detective gave the suspect a form to complete that included an area for his Social Security number.

"The suspect used the child's number and I took him into custody," says Money. He says the perpetrator pleaded guilty for a felony and is believed to be deported.

A couple of years ago, Utah's Assistant Attorney General Richard Hamp was prosecuting more than 30 illegal immigrants on mortgage fraud. He, along with investigators from the Social Security Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, examined the misused Social Security numbers and found that some of the numbers belonged to children.

"I thought there must have been other ways that the kids' Social Security numbers were compromised," says Hamp.

So he compared the children's Social Security numbers in the state's public assistance database, which is less than 1 percent of the population, with workers in the state's work force database.

"We ended up with 200 kids under the age of 12 whose numbers were misused by someone in the work force," says Hamp.

His investigation started "Operation Protect the Children," which targets identity theft against kids in Utah through a joint investigation with the attorney general's office, Social Security Administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Hamp says when the staff chases down the culprits, "95 percent of the time it's illegal immigrants."

"They need the number to get work," he says.

2. Someone with bad credit trying to establish new credit.

- advertisement -


3. Someone within the family. Often Nos. 2 and 3 are merged.

"The older they get, it's likely an unknown perpetrator. The younger they are, it's most likely someone in their inner circle," says Linda Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization based in San Diego.

Many in law enforcement and the credit industry say the crime often goes unreported because the thief is a parent or relative. Foley says two-thirds of the child identity theft cases she deals with involve the parents.

"They may have bad credit and they want to get a utility opened up," says Diane Terry, senior director of Fraud Victim Assistance Department at TransUnion, one of the big three credit reporting agencies. "When they're successful with that they go into other things like credit card accounts. Sometimes the credit stays good and other times they don't pay."

Terry says she's talked with victims who tried to deal with their parents to resolve the problem on their own, only to find that in the end, the problem doesn't go away. That, she says, is when then they make the decision to contact law enforcement.

"It puts the person in a position of having to take legal action against their relative," says Rod Griffin, public education manager at Experian.

Terry says parents often attempt to justify their actions by claiming they were actually doing it on behalf of the children.

Robert Tavelli, president of NCCS Inc., a collection agency based in Santa Rosa, Calif., says representatives at his collection agency find out that parents and relatives will use their child's Social Security number for medical expenses and "usually the minor child doesn't find out until they turn 18. Nobody wants to prosecute a relative," he says.

4. Criminals trying to establish a new identity. Michigan authorities recently came upon a request for a replacement birth certificate for John Slapp. Good trick, considering John Slapp had been dead for 34 years.

When police investigated, they turned up Brandon Storti of Rock, Mich., a convicted sex offender. Through various means, including using the fraudulent Social Security number, Storti had obtained credit cards, a Social Security card and a driver's license in Slapp's name.

Police believe Storti was attempting to head to Oregon under the alias so he wouldn't have to register as a sex offender.

Storti pleaded guilty in early January in the Ingham County Circuit Court to one count of identity theft, a five-year felony and one count of uttering and publishing, a 14-year felony.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/2 ... sp?caret=4

Many in law enforcement and the credit industry say the crime often goes unreported because the thief is a parent or relative. Foley says two-thirds of the child identity theft cases she deals with involve the parents…..
Hmmm…. anchor babies don’t play any part do they
hmmm….

This doesn’t make any since any time I use or an asked ask for my childs ss# it brings up the date of birth and parents info.
It is not going to work they will get caught and fast. These criminals are going to have to get up the night before if they think there going to sneak this type of crime in.

lets say the baby is born in the home and never reported,
whats to say this baby cant be used over and over agian by 10 differnt moms and dads in all the states before some one catches up to it
the states dont check up fast enough and by the time they do its too late.

O ya lets make a baby and sell it over and over and over and over and over till we get rich. Then we raise it as an American. Thats my American dream.
I want to throw up! give me a break