- Wait, stop, don't ever do that.
Scams like this are why approximately 17 million
adults in the US fall victim to identity theft annually.
And that number doesn't account for unreported cases
or cases where children are getting their identity stolen.
Identity theft can impact your finances,
emotional state and criminal record
for years and even decades to come.
Just imagine, if tomorrow you couldn't get an apartment,
apply for a job or even receive financial aid
all because your identity was compromised
and misused on the internet.
In order to prevent this from happening to you,
I spoke to a mother whose child's identify
was stolen at seven years old,
as well as a group of security experts
to find out how can you avoid identity theft.
(upbeat music)
There are many different forms of identity theft.
Financial, where thieves steal your financial information
to obtain loans, credit cards and open bank accounts.
Government, where your identity is used
to access benefits like unemployment
or social security.
And medical, where your name and insurance is exploited
to get medical goods and services such as wheelchairs,
oxygen tanks and even prescriptions.
Then we have two of the most perverse,
criminal and child identity theft.
Criminal identity theft happens
when a criminal falsely identifies themselves to police
as another individual at the point of arrest.
And child identity theft is when a child's
social security is stolen and used to commit fraud.
And all of these words are becoming more
and more common as tech advances.
Your personally identifiable information,
such as social security number,
driver's license number,
financial accounts and phone numbers
are out there somewhere,
meaning they can be taken at any moment.
- Identity theft puts a road block in front of the victim.
And they can be pursuing a number of different things.
Maybe they're trying to purchase a home
or refinance a home, get their dream job, go to school,
and all of a sudden they can't move forward in their life
and pursue that goal because identity theft
has thrown that road block up in front of them.
- Now fraudsters reap all sorts
of benefits from your information.
Your credentials can be compromised
by having your computer, purse or wallet stolen.
But they can also be obtained during a scam calls
or online data breaches, such as that big Equifax data dump,
especially if your social media accounts are public.
'Cause along with sharing memes
you're also giving out free info like your birthday,
hometown, and who you're related to.
And we all know someone who thinks
my credit is bad anyway,
they can have my identity, it's no good.
They're wrong, thieves don't care.
- They can still go get payday loans.
Now you may not go out and get a payday loan
and pay 22% interest,
that doesn't matter to the thief
because they're not paying it back.
So your identity is just as valuable
regardless of your true financial status or picture.
(mysterious music)
- So basically fraudsters don't give a (beep)
when it comes to stealing an identity,
everyone is game,
and I quite literally mean everyone.
Even this person, and this one.
Yep, children get targeted a lot.
Jill Carlon can attest to that.
Her daughter's social security number
was stolen in 2011, when she was only seven years old.
- Children's numbers are obviously the preference
because there is not anything established under them
so it's super easy to start with
small accounts here and there,
and slowly build the credit history
that was never even established in the first place.
- In the past eight years,
Jill has had to fight relentlessly
to get her daughter's identity back
so she can apply for colleges without having any issues.
Identity theft leads to damaged credit,
which can then lead to being denied housing
or being penalized with higher interest rates on your loans.
- We started getting collection calls
for conferences that were being not paid for
by businesses being run under my daughter's number.
I found bank accounts that were open and active.
I found nonprofit organizations being run under her number.
And so with all that we knew for sure now
that the history was extensive.
I was already told that I'll just need to keep her file
and any time she applied for a loan
or went for a job interview
or whatever she would need to carry her file with her
and prove that she was not
the other person for the rest of her life.
- Jill said that the social security office
would not issue her daughter a new number
unless she changed her name.
- We went to court and had to
legally change my daughter's name,
which sounded like a whole lot of fun for 24 hours,
till the realization that this was forever.
This was my new name.
This is what I was gonna be called in school.
This is what all my paperwork's gonna say.
I am no longer who I was before.
It was a hard process.
And again it was another court date.
It took three months to get a court hearing to even do that.
Took her in and she now has a new first and middle name.
- But it turned out that was not enough.
The social security office
also asked Jill to change her daughter's last name,
completely stripping her away from the family's identity.
Jill decided not to go with a last name change,
and it wasn't until she talked to local media
that she was offered a new
social security number for her daughter.
Jill is still fighting to
completely clear her daughter's credit,
and is now trying to get the credit bureaus
to understand their situation.
Tracking how your identity was stolen
is basically a wild goose chase.
It's not like someone had a vendetta against you,
your data was just collected in bulk
and available on the dark net.
I'm gonna let that sink in for a little bit.
(upbeat music)
How can you prevent identity theft
in a world where all your information is online?
The first step, and the best preventative measure
for adult and parents to take,
is to limit the amount
of personal information available online.
That includes your name, date of birth,
address, and social security number.
- One of the things we have to remember though
as a victim of identity theft,
you are guilty and you have to prove yourself innocent,
which is the opposite of our judicial system now.
And somebody at one point had enough information about you
that they're,
they had enough information that said that was you.
So you basically have to go back,
cover your tracks, nope I wasn't in California
to make that withdrawal.
Or hey, look at my phone records,
it proves that I couldn't have been online
or here in person opening up the line of credit.
And so there either has to be
investigative work on your side
or investigative work on law enforcement's side
to clear a lot of people's names.
- But if your information has already been compromised,
call the companies where you know the fraud occurred
and alert them it wasn't' actually you.
Then place a fraud alert with the credit bureaus
and file a report to the FTC
by going to identitytheft.gov.
A fraud alert will notify credit card companies
that you might have been a victim of identity theft.
Think of it as a red flag
for potential lenders and creditors.
And if you have the money to do so,
you might also want to subscribe to services
such as Life Lock, Identity Force,
and ID Watchdog.
These services monitor and report any fraudulent activity
so you can take action as soon as possible.
And if all else fails, you can always freeze your credit.
- There was new legislation that was passed recently
that makes freezing your credit reports free to anyone.
It doesn't matter how old you are
or what state you reside in,
it's free to everyone.
So parents can do it for their children as well.
Now what that does is it stops
any new accounts from being opened on your credit.
Look, it's not a panacea,
it doesn't stop all types of identity theft.
But it does stop that new account opening
type of identity theft.
And it's free.
- Preventing identity theft might seem out of reach,
but there are clear steps
you can take right now to protect it.
Although i's likely to get worse as we move into a future
where almost every transaction we make is done online.
But don't let that discourage you.
Please, go protect your identity.
Hey y'all, thank you so much for watching Contechtual.
If you enjoyed watching this as much as we did making it,
then please make sure to like and subscribe.
And tune in next Thursday to watch a new episode.
Also, we would love to hear from you
so if you have any topic idea
or just wanna chat,
make sure to comment in the section below or message us.
See you next time.