Tricks of Child Identity Recovery
If your child is at least 18 and has just discovered problems from identity theft from earlier years, then he or she must take the recovery approach to identity starting with Chapter 2 through Chapter 4, and moving on as necessary to appropriate steps in other chapters.
Most recovery steps are the same for minor children; however, you’ll be calling and writing on behalf of your child and must provide additional proof of your identity. For every business or entity affected by the fraud, you must include the following, in addition to everything else mentioned in Chapters 2 through 4:
♦ Child’s full name
♦ Child’s Social Security number
♦ Child’s addresses for the last five years
♦ Child’s date of birth
♦ Copies of the child’s birth certificate and Social Security card
♦ Copies of the child’s school records for the past five years
♦ Your name and address
♦ Proof of your relation to the child (should be on the birth certificate or adoption or guardian documents)
♦ That you are requesting information on your child’s behalf as the parent and legal guardian
♦ You are requesting all documents of the fraud associated with your child’s SSN pursuant to FCRA 609(e)
As always, the first step is to contact all three CRAs by phone and place a fraud alert on your child’s profile. The fraudster has already established an address, so you may not be able to set the alert by phone. If that is the case, immediately send a letter informing the CRAs of the fraud and requesting a copy of the report if there is one. Explain that you are investigating a case of child identity theft. Ask the bureaus to place a security freeze on your child’s credit profile and provide you with a password to use to “thaw the file” when your child is old enough for a report to be established.
Identity Crisis
TransUnion says that it has a special e-mail address to which you can send a child’s name and Social Security number to get a Yes or No answer whether there is a credit record. Do not use it! You would be sending that sensitive information unprotected where it could possibly be intercepted and misused. Instead, always send letters return receipt requested to the credit bureaus so you will have a receipt of the correspondence.
In your letter (as always, sent return receipt requested), provide the evidence that someone stole your child’s identity. You will get one of two possible answers. If the response is that the CRA has no credit record for the child, there could be other types of fraud not appearing on reports. Refer to Chapters 7 and 8.
If your child has a record, then you must get the credit reports and dispute them. If you change your child’s Social Security number (more on that later in this chapter), you must write the bureaus and ask that they not only remove the fraud, but take the profile offline because your child has a new Social Security number. To remove the fraud from the child’s credit profile, you, as the parent, must complete the steps in Chapters 5 and 6 on your child’s behalf.
Information = Power
Whenever disputing credit accounts, purchases, or other forms of financial fraud, be sure to note that the child is a minor and cannot enter into a legal and binding contract, and that you, as parent or legal guardian, have the right to remove all fraud. Provide your own Social Security number and identifying documents to the creditors as well.
Depending on what made you think there was a case of identity theft, you may need to continue your investigation:
♦ If someone seems to have obtained a driver’s license or other government-issued ID in the child’s name, Chapter 12 will give details of how to handle the problem.
♦ If there is a question of a problem with the child’s medical records, then go to Chapter 14.
♦ If you’ve received a court notice for criminal action, go to Chapter 15.
♦ If someone is taking civil action against the child, see Chapter 16.
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