Some shady crumb bum swipes an infant’s Social Security number and uses it to obtain a credit line. A preteen has his identity boosted and later comes to find she’s on the hook for an auto loan. A senior citizen receives an email informing him that only a few bits of personal information separate him from his lotto winnings, which he didn’t even know he had it coming to him. All too common today, these scenarios serve to remind you that identity thief, equal opportunity destroyers, scruple not to victimize everyone from toddlers to octogenarians.
All generations stand at risk from the misdeeds of such criminals, whose prowess grows more refined and sophisticated with each passing day. The remaining alert means knowing the signs of identity theft when you see them, as well as recognizing how identity thieves adapt their strategies to the age of a particular victim.
Child Identity Theft
Anyone who believes that he doesn’t need to worry about his kids’ having their IDs stolen should think again. Already rampant, child identity theft increases in frequency with each passing year. The year 2011 alone saw reported some 19,000 incidents of this crime. This represents a dramatic rise, especially if you consider that only eight years before a mere 6,000 cases went reported. Children typically don’t open savings or checking accounts, so you wonder how identity theft should even manage to happen to them. The answer perhaps lies with the fact that many parents generally include personal information on ID tags for the backpacks their children carry to school, and this information proves sufficient for the kind of fraud identity thieves wishes to commit.
Discovering that someone has stolen your kid’s identity usually comes with the appearance of the following pieces of evidence:
- Pre-approved credit cards;
- Other financial offers.
Parents wishing to shield their kids from identity theft should take pains to seal the child’s information in an envelope, rather than simply toss it in the bottom of the child’s rucksack.
Adult Identity Theft
Some 9 million American adults have their identities pilfered each year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reported. The constant high frequency of this crime’s commission owes to the fact that fraudsters will resort to all kinds of means – everything from rooting around in rubbish bins to hacking unsuspecting users’ computers – to obtain people’s personal information.
Grown-ups interested in dodging the nefarious efforts of ID thieves should implement the following protective measures:
- Shredding personal documents;
- Refraining from disclosing driver’s license information
- Using only secure sites when engaged in e-commerce;
- Fetching daily the mail that arrives.
As it is with child identity theft, vigilance is the key to thwarting fraudsters.
Senior Identity Theft
Elder Americans find themselves especially vulnerable to so-called phishing scams, a type of identity theft that involves emails announcing bogus sweepstakes winnings or similar come-ons. Seniors and the adults who care for them should constantly remain on alert for attempts at capturing the elder’s personal information.
Free samples or lottery winnings needing only the recipient’s personal information to be delivered stands as one of the more time-honored methods of committing senior identity theft. Other scams involve a fraudster’s posing as an elder’s cash-strapped relative. Whatever the ruse, seniors should educate themselves in discerning the signs that someone intends to defraud them.
The fact that for health reasons many seniors carry much personal information on them complicates the matter. They often trundle about the following items:
- A Social Security card;
- Medicare card;
- Checkbook.
Should any of these items become stolen, misplaced or lost, danger quite conceivably could ensue. Prudent seniors should think twice, then, about the absolute necessity of taking with them such items every time they venture out of doors.
Identity theft plagues members of all generations indiscriminately. Knowledge of the various means fraudsters adapt to defrauding children, adults and seniors, respectively, can mean the difference between financial security and financial devastation.