This has been a terrible burden on kids. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion’s response has been that they basically don’t care. In fact, one bureau wanted to charge parents a huge monthly fee to see if their kids’ identities may have been subject to any breaches.
Thankfully, AllClearID.com is now offering a free service called ChildScan. With it, you get a ChildScan Report on your son or daughter that combs through credit records, employment records, criminal records and medical accounts to find out if a crook has been using your kid’s Social Security number.
Go online to AllClearID.com/Child for more details. (Note that this service does require you to enter your child’s Social Security number.)
According to the 2012 Child Identity Theft Report, kids are 35 times more likely to be subject to identity theft than adults. Meanwhile, another recent study found that one in 10 kids has his or her identity stolen by the age of 18.
Crooks target kids because they’re ideal candidates for identity theft — no credit history, but a clean Social Security number. As a parent, you want to make sure nobody messes with your children. And the sooner you find out the better, because if it goes on for a decade or more, it can take years to clean up.
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