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A few years ago, my husband and I went to open a department store account to purchase a bed, but our application was declined. Having had a nearly perfect credit score in the past, we were completely taken aback. We called the credit agncies and discovered that my husband's identity had been stolen and abused.
Just like adults, children are victims of identity theft . Unfortunately, we live in a society of people who steal social secuity numbers of anyone from 0-100. If your child starts to receive credit card applications in the mail, it is your first indication that their identity might have been lifted. It is crucial to your child's future credit history that you handle identity theft quickly and thoroughly. Make sure that you regularly check on every family member's credit and keep on top of any fraudulent activity.
What to Do
First of all, don't panic because it will only raise your blood pressure and prevent you from thinking clearly. Secondly, check with the Social Security Administration to see if your child has an earnings statement. Social security numbers, names and oter identification information can be picked out of trash, obtained from doctor's offices and taken from other seemingly harmless places and used to open credit cards, to purchase cars and other expensive vehicles and to run your child's credit into the ground. It can happen in less than 24 hours while you have no idea what is going on and years can pass before you even discover the damage that has been done. So, when you check with Social Security and your child has an earnings statement, their identity has been stolen.
If your child's identity has been stolen (or if yours has), the first step, according to the Federal Trade Commission is to file a police report with the local police. Next, place a fraud alert on all credit reports and close all suspicious accounts. Your final step is to report the fraudulent activity to the Federal Trade Commission.
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Communication 
