Your SSN, otherwise known as your personal id number, is what the US government uses in order to provide disability or retirement benefits. Also, if you plan on getting yourself a job (and who doesn’t!), having a social security number is compulsory, because everyone with a job has got to pay into the social security system.

That’s not all though – there are plenty of other things where an SSN comes in useful. For instance, you’ll have to supply your social security number when opening a bank account. It’s also required when applying for a driver’s license or a credit card.

Hence, it’s vital that you safeguard your SSN, because they’re one of the primary targets of identity theft.

Any establishment could ask you to produce your social security number, for eg. health clubs, utility companies, your doctor’s office, etc.). However, it’s not incumbent on you to provide it all the time. You can easily ask if you could use an alternative identifier. If they still insist on your SSN, it might be a good idea to take your business someplace else, because it is totally within your legal rights to be able to protect your social security number.

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It’s difficult to comprehend at the moment the massive rise and high incidence of children suffering from identity theft.  The practice of borrowing their identities and racking up thousands of dollars worth of debt, getting driver’s licenses, passing corrupted checks or even defaulting on bank mortgages that the criminal has taken out in the kids names, all seem to be occurring. 400,000 cases each year are reported to the Federal Trade Commission and that’s only the ones we know about.  The actual figure is probably much higher.

There are several reasons for the increasing numbers of child identity thefts but by and large it’s due to the attractive nature of the crime.  Kids have unblemished credit records because they rarely need to actually have a credit record.  It’s only when they go to college that most kids do need credit.  The other reason why it’s so attractive to criminals is that the crime can go unnoticed for quite sometime.  Most kids won’t have to apply for various credit based facilities or for their drivers license until they’re at least 16 or above – Giving the criminals the ability to use the identity theft for multiple purposes for a length period of time. Read the rest of this entry »

In recent years, the emerging of social networking sites has gained much popularity. What social networking defines is the increasing numbers of websites, which enables users to interact through internet. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter- are sites that are famous on the web. In the 21st century, no matter whether young or old, almost everyone enjoys passing their leisure time hanging out by chatting online, than any other activities.

Being a responsible and caring parent, you should bear in mind some important things in order to safeguard your child’s identity.

Children are oblivious to danger
In this case, you need to ensure that if your child is engaged with any social networking sites then he puts the profile on “private” mode. This is so that only your child’s friends will be allowed to view their personal information. In addition, no strangers will be permitted. You should also know that even you are not permitted to get access to your child’s account unless you have yourself listed as one of the friends, or you get in using the main password. It saves your child’s identity from staying open to every other stranger. Read the rest of this entry »

Identity theft crimes are on the rise these days and no one is being spared by the scheming crooks, not even children. Parents are now more concerned than ever about the safety of their child’s identity, given that they are as vulnerable as the adults themselves.

It has been noted that children are at a higher risk of falling to traps set by identity thieves compared to their parents for one simple reason; not many know what identity theft is and the ways to avoid it. This makes children a prime target for identity thieves. The situation involving children can go for a long time without being detected. The problem may surface later when the child is grown up and wants to apply for credit, rent a property, or secure a job. An ID thief may need just the Social Security number of your child to apply online for various products or services. The other details may not be very important and experienced thieves will always come up with fake details which work in most cases. These show that you need to take care of your children’s identity to save him or her from the agony of ID theft schemes. Read the rest of this entry »