ID Thieves stealing kid's credit

As an investigation by NBC’s Jeff Rossen and TODAY revealed Thursday, criminals routinely use a child’s pristine credit record to their advantage and get away with it for years or decades — even if law enforcement knows exactly where the imposters live. TODAY showed this in dramatic fashion, hunting down two alleged child imposters and capturing their comments on camera.

Rossen’s story on TODAY also features a 9-year-old girl who is in default on utility bills, a teenager with $750,000 in debt, and a 2-year-old with a pile of credit card bills.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42997608/ns/today-parenting/t/stop-id-thieves-stealing-your-kids-credit/

to make sure the people they give card to are actually the person they claim to be? Like if they get a Social Security number of a 5 year old, why are they giving them a card?

or what the circumstances are. For instance - they never question many elderly persons or many disabled persons - yet both these groups could be placed in nursing homes etc at any time which means that nice social security check is off limits to them because it will then go toward their care in the facility. I call that a lending risk but very few banks or cc companies call it a risk. That is how I got into so much trouble in my personal life. Yes, I know I am dumb but they weren't so smart to lend to me either.

First off, the story covers how the "code" for social security numbers works - based on when and where a child is born. If the code is so easy, why can't the banks or credit agencies recognize a bogus social security number? After all, according to the story, some of the crooks were using the numbers before the children were even born. Only now is the Social Security Administration planning to change how they assign SS numbers to make it more random. This should have been done years ago.

Second, how can a child be held responsible for debts incurred before they are even born or of legal age to commit to debt? It should be simple to clear those debts from a child's record.

Third, banks should be required to check social security numbers or not use them at all and do better background checks.