19,000 Children’s Identities Stolen by Thieves Last Year
19,000 Children’s Identities Stolen by Thieves Last Year
Identity theft in the internet is a very common crime today. But imagine yourself as a parent checking your child’s credit account, only to find out it contains thousands of dollars’ worth of debts.
Yes, it is possible, in fact according to the Federal Trade Commission about a total of 19,000 innocent children’s identities across the United States have been stolen last year. Talk about stealing candy form a baby.
One victim of this offense is 7 year old Ian Umscheid. According to his parents, the incident started when one of the hard drives of their health care provider went missing.
Though the doubtful purchases made with the stolen identity were detected and reported immediately, the perpetrators were already able to steal an amount close to $15,000. Now, not only does the little boy have a bad credit, he also owes the Bank of America $5,400,the Ally Financial Bank $2,700 and the California jewelry store $4,500.
According to Ian, the perpetrators must have acquired the computer hard drive’s files, found his name and stolen his identity.Children are convenient targets because of their clean record from debt. Not only that, but according to authorities, the crime often gets discovered much later when the child becomes a teenager and would apply for a student financial assistance or other loaning purposes.
Simon Umscheid, Ian’s father, has been a district attorney for 12 years, but this does not exempt his family from the crisis.
If you are a parent, you never want this to happen to your child. Here are some precautions you should take in order to prevent this case. First, never carry around your child’s Social Security number unless it is very important that you do. Second, always watch over your child’s internet activities, you never know who might be taking advantage of them.
Trying to catch these perpetrators is not an easy task. In fact, you can try and trace these people for years but there is no guarantee that you would catch them.
Crime chooses no one. Criminals will strike anyone, in anytime, and in any possible way. Though parents do all they can to protect their child, there are just some dangers that even they can’t prevent.
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Filed under: Loans • loans for people with bad credit • Personal Finance • personal loans • Student Loans
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