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Mail correspondence to Equifax
Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
For peace of mind, you can request a credit report for your child through Experian’s online fraud center or by calling 1 888 EXPERIAN (1 888 397 3742) and selecting the fraud option. Simply follow the instructions provided. You will be asked to provide documentation verifying that you are the parent or legal guardian before Experian can send you a credit report.
Here I thought it was an address but it is a site, try this:
Worried about Child Identity Theft?
* Online * Phone number: (800) 680-7289
TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance Department
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
Thank you Nightstar. This information is really useful. My husband was a victim of this through his own parents who used his social security number numerous times before he even turned 18 and some even after. No one can know what a nightmare this causes for someone. I seen it with my own eyes and I can tell you getting everything straight is like working two jobs..your real one and the one fixing your report. I do hope any parent keeps track of their childs social security number and never ruins their childs credit before they have a chance to step on the world.
I usually don't refer to my signature links, but I did write a more comprehensive article under the Credit Reporting Information link, you might want to read up further on.
Problem with children being victimized, is that they feel they can't report their parents. They just live with the damage, and I just can't stress enough that what the parent did was disrespectful, they totally trashed the child's credit, this will cause at the very least 7 years of bad credit, possible more if a judgment was filed, and later got converted to a lien.
This will prevent future applications for credit, or if approved, he will suffer high interest rates. This can cost him thousands of dollars in the end just because they wanted easy access to credit and get away without having to pay it, because it was not hurting their credit.
I did forget to mention, that just because a person activates a fraud alert, obtains a ID Theft Affidavit, and files a police report, they can admit to knowing who caused the damage, but they are not required to disclose who it is when they report the theft.
I also recommend reading my ID Theft article as well as the Misuse of child information for parents obtaining credit. Both of these work together.
Come back and post if you have particular questions as he is dealing with this, I use to work with a credit bureau, and ID Theft is one of my stronger subjects.
Child Identity Theft
A Neighbor from across the street has been using his son's social security number for Phone Service
child identity theft
Hi John,
Can you provide more details on this? Can know what exactly you would like to know about this?
Thanks,
Aaron
Nothing you can really do when you know of another person outside of your family doing that.
I worked for a time collecting cable boxes for the local cable company. And I remember seeing one woman that had boxes marked for collection under her kids names, so then in that case, I was able to contact the cable company to inform them of the relationship of the children to the mother.
Unless you personally know the other parent, and provided they are not also in on it using child's info, I would suggest taking matter to that parent.
Other than that, I am not sure calling the phone company would help when it is not involving you, nor do you know account number and such detail to get in to speak with someone, usually they have policy of not speaking to non-account-holders.
Other thing would be like contacting the police department, I can say I had not heard of concerned citizens doing that, it would be nice if they did, but I am out in left field knowing how the police would handle a 3rd party talking to them.
Identity theft.
If you want to prevent identity theft, you must first get some information from the Identity Theft Resource Center. They also include information like "Identity Theft and Children," "When You Personally Know the Identity Thief" and "To Order a Credit Report for a Child" if you suspect fraud.
It's really a shame that even to this date some of us do victimize children. Little do we think of the future consequences. Identity theft can ruin someone's future, but it's even worse when it comes to your own child.