HOW CAN YOU PREVENT YOUR CHILD FROM FALLING PREY TO IDENTITY THEFT?
A new study by Javelin Strategy & Research has found that more than 1 million US children were victims of identity fraud or theft in 2017.
Even more worrisome, two-thirds of child identity fraud victims are younger than eight years old.
The advent of digitized school, medical and extra curricular records has given criminals greater opportunities to steal a kid's identity, the researchers say.
However, it's very common for the perpetrator of child identity theft to be someone the child knows, such as a family friend or the parent's spouse.
Javelin Strategy & Research found that child identity theft victims are often targeted by people they know, such as a family friend, a parent's partner/spouse or an acquaintance
There are steps that parents can take to make sure their child doesn't fall victim to fraud: