Three stories of child ID theft

IdentityTheft — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:49:00 GMT

Shiloh Puckett, Diamond Daye and Jason Truxel have probably never met, but they have a lot in common--each of them has been a victim of child identity theft.

At least one in 20 children--one child in every elementary school classroom--is an identity theft victim, according to a study by Javelin Strategy and Research. In nearly all child ID theft cases, a parent or other family member who has easy access to the child’s Social Security number commits the crime.

In Shiloh Puckett’s case, it was her mom.

The first credit card account in Shiloh’s name was opened when she was only five years old. By the time she was 10, 17 credit card accounts had been opened using her information and she’d been approved for a $42,000 loan.

“I did it because I had to, as a means of necessity,” Cindy Puckett said. “I feel bad I did it, and I shouldn’t have done it. At the time, I didn’t really think it was wrong in the sense I was hurting my child.”

Puckett served six months in jail after police discovered hundreds of pieces of evidence against her, including credit cards, unpaid bills and loan applications in her daughter’s name.

Diamond Daye’s story is pretty much the same. Her mother, Maurine Walter, used her daughter’s Social Security number to apply for apartments and utilities, cable TV and cell phone service because her own lousy credit made it impossible to pass credit checks.

Many parents claim they had to use their children’s identities because they were stuck between rock and a hard place: When there’s not enough money to cover essentials, they use a kid’s name and SSN intending to pay the bills and make everything right before the child grows up.

In other cases, the crime is just too easy, and the loot is irresistible. That seems to be the case with Michael Truxel, whom his son, Jason Truxel, says used his personal information for lavish spending.

Jason Truxel’s credit record shows he took out the first of 23 credit cards when he was 13, bought a house at 14 and, at 17, bought a timeshare condo in Daytona Beach. Jason said he found a dresser full of bills at his father’s house. In the same dresser, he said he found 15 credit cards in his name.

ID theft up 22% in 2008

IdentityTheft — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:24:00 GMT

More than 10 million Americans became identity theft victims in 2008, according to the annual report released by Javelin Strategy and Research last week. That's a huge increase over the 8.1 million victims of 2007, and the first time Javelin has reported an increase in the number of victims since they began tracking ID theft in 2003.

The report also confirms findings from early surveys regarding the source of personal and financial information used by thieves. Among the 35% of respondents who are certain who stole their information and how it was obtained,

    * 43% can trace the crime to a lost or stolen wallet, checkbook, credit card or other document.
    * 19% know that the information was stolen while they were making purchases or other transactions.
    * 13% knew the criminal as a friend, acquaintance or in-home employee.

Of the 10 million people who became identity theft victims last year, more than 1 million of them place the blame squarely on business or government institutions that lost information in data breaches.

Another 11% reported their information was stolen while they were online, mostly through the machinations of hackers, viruses or spyware. A few more of the victims admit to falling prey to phishing attempts.

It's nearly impossible to establish a causal relationship between the declining economy and increasing numbers of identity theft crimes, but there's certainly a correlation.

"The short story is that criminals are getting more desperate," said Jim Van Dyke, a Javelin spokesman.

Almost 600,000 people lost their jobs during the first week of February, the same week the report was released.

If there's any good news to be found in the report, it's that the average out of pocket loss for an ID theft victim is down to only $500.

ID theft : Javelin Strategy and Research

Three stories of child ID theft

ID theft up 22% in 2008