Checking whether your child's identity was stolen
A child's clean credit file is valuable precisely because nobody checks it for eighteen years. Ten minutes closes the door.
Why children are targets
A child's Social Security number has no history and no one watching it. A criminal can use it for years — and the fraud surfaces when your eighteen-year-old applies for a first loan and discovers a ruined file.
Check, then freeze
- Ask each bureau whether a credit file exists for your child (there normally should not be one). Each has a minor/protected-consumer process — search "[bureau name] protected consumer freeze."
- If a file exists with accounts on it, that is identity theft: report at identitytheft.gov and dispute everything.
- Either way, place a protected consumer freeze at all three bureaus. It sits there until your child is grown.
Warning signs
Collection calls or credit card offers in a child's name, government-benefit denials because "income already exists" under their number, or IRS mail about a child's "wages" — take any of these seriously.
Not sure how exposed you are? Our free check shows which leaks your email is in — about one second, and you keep the answer. The clearly identified AI scam guide is available any hour; email contact@protectindiana.org. A member of our team will reply as soon as possible.