SOCIAL SECURITY LAW: Children are More Prone to Social Security Identity Theft

April 15, 2011

According to the recent study conducted by Debix , a company providing identity protection, one out of ten children has been a victim of identity theft compared to only .2% in adults.

Debix used some 42,232 minors as their subjects. After scanning the identities of these minors during between 2009 and 2010, results indicated that 4,311 of them had been victims of Social Security number (SSN) fraud.

Richard Power, the author of the study, expressed concerns that stolen identities from minors might be the easiest way for identity thieves. He also confirmed that a considerable percentage of SSN frauds among children were due to breaches on institutional database.

Power was also calling for more crucial academic studies on children’s identity theft to determine all the issues surrounding it.