You’re most likely conscious of the foremost knowledge breaches suffered by AT&T and National Public Data final yr. But do you know that knowledge breaches can occur wherever — even at your child’s faculty?
EnergySchool, an academic know-how supplier, suffered an information breach after a lapse in cybersecurity, NBC reported. The hackers who obtained youngsters’s private figuring out info then extorted the corporate, which paid the cybercriminals to maintain the information from being printed. The extortionists allegedly deleted the information as a part of the deal, however now criminals are utilizing the stolen EnergySchool knowledge to attempt to extort faculty districts within the US and Canada straight.
And this is not an remoted incident.
I hit the roof after I came upon my children’ info had been compromised in a separate knowledge breach. It’s one factor for my info to be leaked in main knowledge breaches, however having my youngsters’s identities in danger felt worse.
One in eight youngsters had their identification compromised in an information breach since 2019, and about 5% have suffered identification theft over the identical interval, based on the 2024 Child & Family Cybersecurity Study from Javelin Research.
Generally, losses from fraud and identification theft have additionally continued to rise, based on the Federal Trade Commission. Consumers misplaced $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024 — 25% greater than the yr prior. The FTC additionally acquired greater than 1.1 million studies of identification theft acquired by means of the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov web site final yr.
That’s why I froze my children’ credit score studies so unhealthy actors could not open new traces of credit score or different accounts of their names. You ought to too. Here’s how.
How to freeze your children’ credit score studies
Freezing your children’ credit score studies — generally known as a protected client freeze — requires considerably extra work than freezing your individual as an grownup. And your kid’s credit score can solely be unfrozen by the father or mother or guardian or by the kid as soon as they flip 16.
You’ll must make copies of delicate paperwork and mail them. In addition, you will must take the next steps with every of the foremost credit score bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion
Step 1: Gather the required documentation
Equifax, Experian and TransUnion require you to supply documentation for your self and your minor youngster. Here’s a rundown of all of the paperwork you will must have prepared for every credit score bureau.
- Letter that requests a protected client freeze on the dependent’s credit score report (for TransUnion)
- Filled out protected client freeze type (for Experian and Equifax) discovered on every web site.
- Copy of 1 doc that gives adequate proof of authority you can act on behalf of the dependent (i.e. courtroom order, lawfully executed and legitimate energy of legal professional, proof of parentage, resembling a delivery certificates or copy of a foster care certification)
- Proof of identification for you and the minor youngster (i.e. copies of Social Security playing cards, licensed or official copies of a delivery certificates and duplicate of driver’s license or different government-issued identification)
- List of all your own home addresses from the earlier two years
Step 2: Fill out the safety freeze type
This course of varies barely by credit score bureau. Experian requires you to fill out the shape on-line and print it, whereas Equifax requires you to print the shape and fill it out by hand. In each circumstances, each have to be mailed along with your supporting paperwork.
Meanwhile, TransUnion asks you to ship a written request for a kid safety freeze. Luckily, you should use the knowledge on the opposite credit score bureau varieties as a top level view for particulars you must embrace in your request.
Step 3: Mail required paperwork by way of safe mail.
Each credit score bureau requires you to mail the requested paperwork with their respective safety freeze varieties (or a written request for TransUnion). Considering the breadth of private info and delicate paperwork required for these requests, you could need to ship the packages by way of safe mail.
The handle the place you will ship documentation for every credit score bureau is detailed within the chart beneath.
Credit bureau mailing addresses
| Credit bureau | Mailing handle | Mailing handle for in a single day mail |
|---|---|---|
| Experian | Experian P.O. Box 9554 Allen, TX 75013 | Experian 701 Experian Parkway Allen, TX 75013 |
| Equifax | Equifax Information Services LLC P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348 | Equifax Information Services LLC P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348 |
| TransUnion | TransUnion P.O. Box 380 Woodlyn, PA 19094 | TransUnion P.O. Box 380 Woodlyn, PA 19094 |
Generally talking, a credit score freeze can be added to your kid’s credit score studies inside just a few days of every bureau receiving the knowledge. You also needs to obtain a letter from every credit score bureau when the protected client freeze is in place.
Why must you freeze your children’ credit score studies?
My companion and I selected to freeze our kids’s credit score studies for a similar causes we froze our personal — to stop scammers and thieves from opening new accounts in any of our names.
Children beneath 18 usually don’t have any info on their credit score studies as a result of they have not opened any credit score accounts. This affords identification thieves a clear slate they will use for their very own functions, like creating artificial identities.
Protected client freezes on your children aren’t as versatile as customary credit score freezes for adults. They cannot be unfrozen on a whim. The father or mother or guardian should present the identical documentation listed above to show their and their kid’s identification to have it lifted.
We had been advantageous with this since our teenage children will not be making use of for credit score any time quickly. They can unfreeze their credit score once they flip 18.
Signs of kid identification theft
If a baby beneath 18 has info on their credit score studies, that may very well be an indication of identification theft. They shouldn’t have something on their credit score studies except you have got them listed as a certified person in your bank card or they produce other varieties of reporting you already know about and consented to.
Fortunately, every of the foremost credit score bureaus affords a course of for checking a minor kid’s credit score studies for any reporting. You can use Experian’s minor request type to verify in case your youngster has a credit score report, simply as you possibly can submit a baby identification theft inquiry with TransUnion.
You may ship a letter to Equifax requesting your kid’s credit score report with this minor credit score report request type to the next handle:
Equifax Information Services LLC
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
While unrecognized monetary accounts on a baby’s credit score report are a certain signal of kid identification theft, different indicators might not be so apparent:
- Suspicious mail arriving for a kid, together with correspondence from firms or payments
- Your youngster begins receiving affords within the mail which are usually despatched to adults, resembling preapproved bank card affords
- Phone calls to your youngster about owed money owed, together with calls from debt collectors
- Strange correspondence to your youngster from the IRS, together with notices about unpaid tax payments or info that reveals your youngster listed on a tax return apart from your individual
Steps to take if you happen to assume your child’s identification was stolen
If you imagine your kid’s identification has been compromised, act quick. If you fail to take motion to guard their credit score and identification, thieves could make the issue significantly worse.
Take the next steps if you happen to imagine your kid’s identification has been stolen:
- Get copies of their credit score studies. Use the varieties and knowledge above for every credit score bureau to get a duplicate of your kid’s credit score studies. This will inform you of what sort of accounts have been opened in your kid’s identify and different particulars in regards to the fraudulent exercise.
- Contact the businesses the place the fraud occurred. The FTC says to contact the businesses that had been deceived as a part of the fraud to report it. For instance, if somebody opened a bank card in your kid’s identify, you’d contact the bank card firm’s fraud division to report the account so it may be closed.
- Report the fraud to the credit score bureaus. Use this contact info from the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov web site to report fraud to Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
- Report to IdentityTheft.gov. You’ll additionally need to create an official identification theft report with IdentityTheft.gov. The company will enable you create a restoration plan with steps to revive your kid’s identification and might help you shield your minor’s credit score shifting ahead.
- Freeze your kid’s credit score studies. To forestall thieves from opening extra accounts in your kid’s identify, place a protected client freeze on their credit score studies with all three credit score bureaus.
- Sign up for a household identification theft safety plan. I’ve Identity Guard, however there are a number of choices out there to you that CNET has reviewed. Identity theft safety might help monitor all sides of your and your loved ones’s identification by monitoring credit score studies, financial institution accounts, the darkish net, and extra.
