Did you know that child identity theft is one of the fastest growing problems with identity fraud?

Most children get a social security number early on, often because their parents need it for some reason. But because they’re young, very few parents ever think to check their kids’ credit reports for unusual activity.

If a child’s social security number is stolen, an identity thief can assume their identity and charge up a great deal of debt without ever being found out.

In many of these cases, nobody is the wiser until the child becomes an adult and gets turned down for credit because of all the problems on their credit report.

Make sure you check your children’s credit report every year when you do your own. You wouldn’t expect to find anything on it, but if you ever do you’ll be able to stop the problem before it becomes too far gone.