I usually post this kind of thing over on DataBreaches.net, but maybe posting this here will reach parents I might not otherwise reach.
Children’s Social Security Numbers are highly desirable to criminals. Why? Because most parents are not likely to even check to see if anyone else is using or misusing their child’s SSN. So thieves can misuse the number for fraud, and you likely won’t find out until your child turns 18. In fact, your child should not even have a credit report on them before their 18th birthday, but have you checked to find out if they do have one?
Look at this ad/listing from a darknet marketplace:
USA KIDS SSN / PARENTS SSN – DOB YEAR 1998 UPTO 2015
982 in stock
The vendor provides additional information:
Listing Details
This listing is for USA Kids Profiles ( NO CC ), TAX Fraudters knows the benefits of having childs in the tax records when filing, here you are gents and sexy ladies. young american Kids and there parents if you want for you to make maximum profits on.
DOB Year available = 1998 – 2015
??? USE FOR ???
? TAX FRAUD AND OTHER STUFF.
??? DELIVERY FORMAT ???SSN: DOB:First Name: Last Name: Address: City: State: Zip: Country
And no, I don’t know how or where the vendor acquired all these kids’ SSNs, although it would certainly be nice to know. It could be a hack of a school district, it could be a hack of a health insurer where dependents’ SSN would also be recorded, or…. who knows?
But now that you’ve seen this ad, what, if anything are you going to do this coming week to protect yourself and your children?
Hint: part of your response should be to determine if there is any credit report on your minor children. If there is, you have a problem you need to address. If there’s no credit report on your child, depending on where you live, you may be able to easily request a credit freeze.
See this helpful information from the Federal Trade Commission on children’s identity theft.