Truth 17 Sweet 16 and already a victim!

If you are a parent of a teenager, you already know the risks that the Internet can pose. By now you have probably heard the stories about adult predators who hang out in online chat rooms looking for children to victimize. Often these freaks pose as teenagers, attempting to gain the trust of unsuspecting and naive children. News reporters have posed as potential child victims, agreed to meet with predators, planted hidden cameras, and caught these criminals in compromising positions.

It is obviously extremely important that all parents are aware of these risks to make sure their children know who they should and shouldn’t be talking with. However, there is another risk that children are facing online that often parents are completely unaware of. That risk, of course, is identity theft, and it turns out that children can be at even more risk than adults.

I didn’t get my first credit card until I was 18 years old. Like most other teenagers, even after I got it, I had no clue what a credit report was, and I was not even slightly interested in reading one. In fact, I didn’t find out about credit reports until I bought my first new car a few years later. Had an identity thief been using my information during those years, I would not have known it. And that is exactly why younger people are so much at risk.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has stated that people under the age of 18 are the fastest growing demographic for identity theft. More often than not, young victims won’t realize that they are victims until they apply for a driver’s license or attempt to sign up for their first credit card. Then, all of a sudden, creditors come out of the woodwork to attempt to recover unpaid debt. In many cases, thieves use portions of the victims’ real information while making up the rest. When the victims get credit reports, they find their social security numbers assigned to more than just their names.

So how is it that identity thieves are acquiring these young peoples’ SSNs? Well, it turns out that often the victims give it to them while chatting online. While most adults have been made aware of the need to guard SSNs, often teenagers don’t have any idea what it’s used for or what can happen if it ends up in the wrong hands.

To find out just how difficult, or easy, it would be to convince teenagers to give out their confidential information, I decided to conduct an experiment. I created a fake company that gave away free MP3 music; something that’s attractive to nearly every teen. On the home page, I listed numerous popular bands and explained that the site allowed free and 100% legal downloads. The explanation on the site was that it was only for users under the age of 18. The idea was that the music industry realizes that most young people don’t have the money to pay for the music, so instead the site was giving the music away in return for the revenue from advertising that was placed on the site.

As with most attacks, all you need is a story that is remotely plausible and offers something that the potential victim wants. To use this free site, the teens were required to fill out an online form that asked for their full names, addresses, and email addresses. They were also asked to create a login name and password so that they could log in and access all the free downloadable music. In addition, victims were asked to supply their birth dates and SSNs to validate that they were really under the age of 18. The site also told victims that no credit card information was required, as there would be no charge for any of the music. To an unwitting teenager, that sounds quite reasonable and legitimate.

I put the site online and then went hunting. I started by going to the social networking Web sites and creating a user account for a 15-year-old boy. I would attempt to meet as many people as I could and befriend as many people as possible. In addition, I visited blogs, chat rooms, and anywhere else I could find young people to talk to. What was frightening is just how easy it was. Regardless of my intention, it definitely opened up my eyes as to how frighteningly easy it is for predators to be so successful at finding young victims.

My main goal was to get people to go to my fake company and, in all modesty, I think I did a pretty good job of promoting it. In my messages, I posted things about the music I liked and then gave the link to the site, raving about how great it was that a site like it existed. I always mentioned the free music and how it was totally legal. When people would chat with me, I always asked if they had an iPod or if they were into music. If they said no, our friendship ended. If they said “yes,” I mentioned a few bands I thought were popular with the kids and then asked if they downloaded their music from my fictitious company. Of course, no one had ever heard of it, so I explained just how cool it was.

Ultimately, I did get people to my site. Over a three-day period, I was able to gather about 25 SSNs.

When I was done with the experiment, I simply changed the site message to say that the company was no longer in business. As for all those who had submitted their information, upon completion of the form, they were informed it would take up to three days to validate their age, and they would receive an email notification when their account had been approved. Of course, it never was.

Had I been a real identity thief, the hour it took to make my fake Web site and a few days of chatting online would have been more than worth it. My youngest victim would have been 14 years old, and my oldest 17.

Protecting your children’s identities

The best advice I can give to parents of children at any age is to hold on to their social security cards and not give them out until you absolutely have to.

In addition, if your child comes to you asking for it, ask questions to find out exactly why they need it. Take the time to ensure that it is being used for a legitimate reason.

Then, like the conversation about the birds and the bees, sit them down and explain just how complicated and precious their identities really are and that it only takes one time of giving their information to one wrong person for it to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

If you are the parent of a child who has had his identity stolen, you should treat this just like you would treat an adult. (See Part IX of this book, “The Truth About Putting a Stop to Identity Theft.”) File a police report, notify the reporting agencies, and file for credit freeze and fraud alert. Ultimately, there is no discrimination when it comes to ID theft, and you need to get control as quick as possible.