Stealing Credit From A Baby
from the growing-concerns dept
With more publicity talking about identity fraud, and more people checking to make sure they haven't been victims of identity fraud scams, apparently the type of identity fraud that's on the rise is taking social security numbers from kids. It's still a small part of the total identity fraud problem, and it's not so much an online phenomenon as most cases involve family members, but it's much more problematic, as it's often not identified until many years later when the kid actually applies for a credit card. For all the data that the big credit firms keep on people, you would think they'd have something about a person's age.
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Filed Under: children, credit agencies, fraud, identity fraud, social security numbers
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But if they knew the person's age . . .
I'm starting to suspect SOME of the issues with lax security just stem from the card companies lining their own pockets with some of these things.
OOPS, potentially 3 million people's identities are free for the taking!
Even if they sold the info for a dollar a number, they'd make gravy. Then the credit card company can say it was leaked and fire an intern or say they were hacked and fire their IT staff.
And with banks such as Julius Baer . . .
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Do banks think they can give a loan/credit card to a guy who has stolen an SSN from a six year old kid? either the bank has a very bad verification team or definitely there's some problem with SSN, not have age & address.
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The problem is that the social security number is being used for something that it's not intended for, and something that I always thought wasn't legal. Your SSN is only supposed to be used for social security. But because the SSN is supposed to be unique and everyone is supposed to have one, financial institutions, medical providers, and other companies use it to uniquely identify an individual. If you provide a name and SSN to a bank there's little verification that they can do beyond running that SSN through a number of financial systems, credit reporting agencies, and so on to see if there is an existing history. If there isn't an existing history then they pretty much have to assume that the name and number go together, that they are yours (assuming that you have additional identity documents using the same info), and that you just have never applied for credit before. So it's like starting with a clean slate.
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Know your credit. Always.
For those who ask "But doesn't the report have a DOB?" Yes, it does, but the actual credit report is RARELY looked at anymore.
Most credit decisions are based on 3 primary factors: The credit score, the number of revolving trade lines (credit cards), and the number of installment trade lines (mortgages, auto loans).
From the RTL and ITL comes the debt-to-income ratio. Too high, and you'll be denied or offered a much higher interest rate (which makes NO sense).
Identity theft has increased by incalculable numbers recently. Some inside the industry believe this number jumps over 300% per year. That's quite a bit.
I try to educate people often and to make sure they understand how important their credit report is, given it follows them for life. So, if you don't mind, I'll do so here.
1) Go to www.freecreditreport.org and obtain your credit report from all 3 bureaus. This is free. If you've recently been denied credit, you're also entitled to the free report.
Note: If you've been to the website within the past year, you'll not qualify for another free report until the year has expired.
2) EXAMINE! EXAMINE! EXAMINE! While most people may not understand how to read a credit report, it is fairly simple once you get the hang of it.
There are 3 sections to validate:
a) Public record header - make sure there are NO liens against you or your home here! This is a common indicator that someone's using your identity.
b) Trade lines - examine them all! You want to pay particular attention to accounts that you do not recognize. While you're there, make damn sure all trade lines report EITHER the High Credit or High Limit amount AND the Balance amount. If not, your credit score is seriously affected by this! Call the issuing company and tell them to report it.
c) MOST IMPORTANT!!!! Inquiries. These are found at the bottom of the credit report and will indicate EVERYONE who has looked at your credit report in the past 2 years. There are two types of inquiries: Prescreen and Full.
Prescreen reports don't contain credit info, but merely returns info about you and a summary of your credit situation (No score is returned nor any info on the credit you have). These are often used by those who send you junk mail, such as credit card offers. While they're ignored in bank loans, too many should be an indication that something isn't right.
Full reports are just that. This is incredibly important because this tells you someone's looking at your credit report. If you didn't apply for credit, you can bet someone else did.
Note: Current relations with creditors may also show up as creditors often refresh the report.
READ THIS PART!
If you suspect any fraud or unrecognized activity on the credit report, contact the bureau immediately for a dispute. This action may take up to 90 days to resolve, but all bureaus must validate the information on the report or remove it. This is per the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Don't waste your time with a user comment on your report. They're ignored, especially with auto-approval systems.
If you live in a state that allows you to lock your credit report, sign up today. Don't waste a single day with this!!!
Thanks for reading and I hope none of you become a victim.
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I always forget the annual.
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Re: Know your credit. Always.
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http://www.equifax.com/popups/ec_pop_fcra_state_chart.html
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