Imagine this. The day has finally arrived for your teenager to apply for college and hence probably a college loan. You watch your son or daughter excitedly open up the college loan response and see a big DECLINED!!!! How can this be? Why would your child not qualify for a college loan?
Unfortunately, the answer is because when your child was younger, an identity thief stole his/her social security number. Possibly it was stolen from a school, camp or sports organization. It is only recently that there has been a greater understanding about protecting our personal identifying information, especially online. Since internet usage has became a part of everyday life, we have been voluntarily and involuntarily sharing personal information over the internet.
The identity thief stole your child’s social security number and created a fake person also known as a “synthetic identity.” Only much later will you or your child find out about the misuse of his/her information.
Now there are potentially years of negative credit reports, a mountain of debt and quite a mess to clean up. The first step is convincing the credit card companies, banks and whomever else is owed money that your child is not responsible for the actions used with their social security number. Next is cleaning up the damage that has been done. In this situation, the clock is ticking for your child to try to get the college loan that they need to further their education.
This would be devastating to any teen who had their heart set on going to college with the help of financial aid.
Child identity theft is very popular because thieves know that most parents are not checking on their children’s social security numbers before they turn 18 years old. Legally, no one should be using a minor’s SSN. A child’s social security number is a fresh clean slate for an identity thief to use for many years before they are detected.
So, what should parents do?
Parents can educate themselves about identity theft at Identity Protection Planning.
Identity Protection planning is a Connecticut Company founded by Dana Mantilia Coady. Dana is a business woman with 3 of her own children along with 4 additional step children. Protecting her children’s identities is very near and dear to her heart. Identity Protection Planning was developed to focus on educating, organizing and protecting families from identity theft. There is a real need to help educate parents on the risks associated with both adult and child identity theft. Identity Protection Planning offers IDENTRON identity theft protection plans. For roughly 80¢ a day a family of four will be protected. Identron provides the most comprehensive family identity theft protection available on the market today. The Identron Parent Plan provides complete protection for 1 adult and up to 4 children. See why Identron is different from any other identity theft protection company.
It is much better to be proactive about protecting your family from identity theft instead of dealing with the time, frustration and expense associated with cleaning up an identity fraud situation. Take five minutes of your day to check out which IDENTRON plan suits your family’s needs.
Sponsored Guest Author’s Bio: Dana Mantilia lives in Connecticut. She is a mom, wife and business entrepreneur. Dana has earned status as a Certified Identification Protection Advisor from the Identity Management Institute. While researching and educating herself on the increasing risks associated with identity theft, she realized child identity theft is prevalent. After speaking with hundreds of everyday parents, Dana recognized a lack of child identity theft awareness. She developed Identity Protection Planning LLC, a company that focuses on educating, organizing and protecting all family members (including minor children) from identity theft.
