Last week Florida’s attorney general Bill McCollum alerted parents to the widespread theft of children’s identities. He cited an estimate that 500,000 children a year fall victim to identity theft, but added that he suspected there were far more victims of child identity theft.

A recent study by Javelin Strategy and Research proves him right.

Incredibly, their study shows 5% of children have at least one credit report linked to their Social Security number, indicating that someone has applied for credit using their information. That’s at least one child in every school classroom. (more…)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Give me an I!
Give me at D!
Give me a T!
Give me a H!
Give me an E!
Give me an F!
Give me a T!
What’s it spell? ID THEFT!

Identity theft charges have been filed against Wendy Brown, of Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin for using her daughter’s Social Security card, birth certificate, official school transcript and other personal documentation to enroll at the local high school. Why? She wanted to be a cheerleader. And if she hadn’t been arrested her dream would have come true.

Brown registered at the high school as a 15-year-old transfer student and tried out for the cheerleading squad. Being picked as a cheerleader meant she was that much closer to realizing her dream. She attended a party with the other kids at the cheerleading coach’s house, and went to classes with them on the first day of school. (more…)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

It’s the big corporate and government data breaches that get the most attention: 94 million credit records exposed in TJX hacking attack; US Department of Veterans Affairs loses records of 26 million current and former soldiers. When millions of people become vulnerable to identity theft because of laxity in security procedures, it should make the headlines.

But all too often it’s the smaller incidents that illustrate how vulnerable consumers really are. Unless you work for the East Burke High School in North Carolina, you might think that their little data breach is insignificant. If only 163 employees are affected, it might seem more like an “oops” than the egregious mishandling of private information that it really is.

For five years the employees’ names, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and job titles were posted on the school’s website. If this sort of careless, irresponsible oversight were a singular occurrence, it would be worthy of attention only in that small community. But it’s not. (more…)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites