Dale Penn

Many of you who have kids may have wondered if your little crumb snatchers are vulnerable to identity theft. If that thought has ever crossed your mind, you are not alone.

My first clue that our own kids were potential victims, surfaced when unsolicited mail began showing up in the mailbox. Credit card offers with the names of pre-teens and teenagers are not uncommon.

If you have not opted-out of junk mail, you are probably still seeing offers from predatory lenders arrive pretty frequently. “Don’t they know that little Bobby has no job or income?”

Each year, experts estimate that more than 3 million people discover that a new credit account has been opened up in their name. Your child’s vital data has value in the dark world of identity thieves.

Many fraudsters troll in these waters and they know that their crimes could possibly go undetected simply because of the age of the victim. Targeting victims who are unaware of their exposure makes the chance of detection slimmer than usual.

Not only do young victims remain in the dark, but their parents may not uncover the damage for many years. When the young person tries to get a driver’s license or applies for a credit card, they discover a crime that could be years old with no way to fight back.

Here are 6 steps parents should take for the protection of their child’s identity.

1. Never disclose your child’s social security number unless it is mandatory- such as school records, income tax returns or medical emergencies.
2. Keep copies of birth certificates under lock and key and share them only when the information is mandatory.
3. Don’t be intimidated or afraid to ask anyone who requests a personal document WHY that specific information is needed. Also ask WHAT steps they take to safeguard the information.
4. Don’t let a child or adolescent carry a copy of his or her Social Security card in their purse or wallet.
5. Watch the mail for credit offers or other personalized mail to your child. These early warning signs can signal danger ahead or possibly danger in progress.
6. Opt out of junk mail for you and your kids. There are companies that will allow you to get your children’s name off of the direct marketers lists along with your own. Check out greendimes.com for a great example of this type of service.

You can also request a free credit report from each of the major credit reporting agencies once a year for your child. If the child is under age 13, the request must be in writing.

For more information go to annualcreditreport.com, a website operated by the three credit reporting agencies. While there, you can request a free copy of your own report.

Finally, remember that privacy leakage occurs often on the web and especially at social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. These companies do what they can to help monitor activity on their sites, but ultimately your child’s identity safety practices are your responsibility.

The Oracle of Omaha shares our pain!

It is not surprising that many well known personalities are targeted not only because of their vast wealth, but because dumb criminals actually believe that the wealthy enjoy so much excess that they wouldn’t notice a few missing coins.

The spotlight shines brightly enough to cast a shadow over the financial affairs of many in the public eye. That spotlight however, hasn’t necessarily blinded them.

Oprah, American Idol finalist Ruben Studdard and even Herman Munster have all made the identity theft headlines in the past couple of years. Enter Warren Buffett.

A story in the March 2008 issue of Fortune Magazine cites the latest instance of a high profile identity theft victim. For those who don’t know, Buffett recently passed Bill Gates as the richest man in the world, with a net worth around 62 billion dollars.

According to the account, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO recently checked his credit history and discovered that his FICO score was slightly lower than the U.S. median. The less than stellar FICO score was attributed to a supposed “impostor” who may have compromised Buffett’s credit record.

Apparently, Mr. Buffett’s credit report cites 23 missed payments on a loan held by an HBSC branch in Nevada. The total loan amount was  a whopping $294.00. Buffett claims the account was never his. Nice try Warren.

Fortune reporter Telis Demos indicated that a recent study found that 25% of credit reports contain serious errors.

Although most of us will never share the financial spotlight with money making titans like Oprah and Buffett, we do share the same vulnerability.

Fortunately for Mr. Buffett, he didn’t ignore his credit history, he actually looked at it.

The rest of us would do well to follow that sage example.