Identity thieves increasingly target children

A recent investigation into illegal immigrants who were hired by a
Texas nursing home after they bought Social Security cards revealed
that seven of the identification numbers on the fake cards belonged to
children, a Social Security Administration special agent said
Thursday. Increasingly, identity thieves are hacking computers at
schools and pediatric centers to retrieve this lucrative personal
information, experts say.

"While this investigation involved a very small sample, we found that
of 28 misused SSNs identified, 25 percent belonged to children,"
Antonio Puente, special agent for the SSA Office of Inspector
General's Dallas field division, testified at an off-site
congressional hearing. The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social
Security held the session in Plano, Texas, to examine the growing
problem of child identity theft.

More than 140,000 American children each year become victims of
identity theft, experts said at a July child-centric fraud forum
sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission. That number includes kids
whose relatives, when in a financial bind, applied for new credit with
their young family member's name and Social Security number. Reports
of child identity theft increased nearly 200 percent between 2003 and
2009, when 19,000 cases were filed, according to FTC figures.

Robert Feldt, special agent in-charge at the same Texas division, said
child identity theft "allows for the potential long-term undetected
abuse of a genuine SSN -- and the potential long-term harm to a young
person's financial future." It usually isn't until about 18 years
later that the adult victim discovers a mysterious history of unpaid
bills or loan defaults.

All the suspects questioned during the nursing home incident were
Mexican nationals who currently are undergoing deportation and removal
proceedings, Puente said.

In one new form of identity fraud, corrupt vendors use dormant Social
Security numbers, particularly those assigned to children, to
establish bogus credit files for people with bad credit, Feldt said.
They advertise these offerings, called credit profile numbers or
credit protection numbers, on websites at prices between $40 and
$3,500.

"Despite what many of these credit repair websites imply, consumers
should know that CPNs are not legal," he testified.

The inspector general's office is pushing for legislation that would
limit the ability of local governments and companies to access and
display Social Security Numbers. Schools and social services agencies
often widely circulate sensitive personal data for kids in foster
care, leaving foster children especially vulnerable to identity theft,
panelists at the July summit said.

Source: http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110901_8644.php?oref=rss?zone=NGtoday