Want to check if your child is an identity theft victim? Of course you do, but how? Or, maybe you noticed something fishy in the mail, like a credit card application in your child’s name, well, guess what, it’s likely your child has become a victim of identity theft. But how do you prove it? The best way is to contact one of the three credit bureaus, or better yet, all three credit bureaus, to see if they’ve opened credit files in your child’s name. An easier way would be to go to annualcreditreport.com to order their credit reports or use an identity theft protection service like LifeLock to check their credit reports on your behalf.
If you go the credit bureau route, it’s essential that you do so in writing so that you can prove that you have a relationship to your child and are not just digging for information. When you make the request, you’ll need to include copies of your child’s birth certificate, his or her Social Security card and your driver’s license. You don’t want to send the original documents, and paying a few extra bucks to get it there securely is a good idea.
The optimum result will be that the credit bureau or whoever gets back to you and tells you that there is no record on file for your child. Since your child doesn’t have and isn’t applying for credit they should have no credit record and thus no credit report. If you find that your child has no report, resist the temptation to check back every month or so to determine whether or not this is still the case.
If you cause repeated inquiries, this could end up on your child’s credit report, which would actually make him or her more likely to become a victim of identity theft – the exact situation you are trying to stop or prevent. Instead, if there are no further incidents that trigger suspicion, stick to checking it every year or two.
If you’d like more of an ongoing monitoring type of situation, you can register your child for an identity theft protection plan. Usually, for minors, the plans only cost a few dollars a month or less. If you’re looking into buying an identity theft policy for yourself, see if you can add your child or children onto it for what will likely be a nominal charge. TrustedID includes children in their family plan which costs $240 and LifeLock charges $22.50 per child under 16 (one adult at $99 per year is mandatory). LifeLock will even confirm with the bureaus that no credit file has been opened.
Want to learn more about child identity theft? Check out some of our other blog posts:
Identity Thieves May Be Closer To Home Than You Think
Debix Study Shows 1 in 20 Children Are Victims of Identity Theft