More than 1M Children victims of Identity Fraud in 2017

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https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/more-than-1m-children-victims-of-identity-fraud-in-2017/d/d-id/1331674

Total fraud against kids amounted to $2.6 billion and more than $540 million in out-of-pocket costs to families, a new report finds.

Data breaches are bad news for all victims but especially harmful to children. More than one million children were victims of identity fraud last year, costing $2.6 billion in total and $540 million in out-of-pocket costs to families.

The 2018 Child Identity Fraud Study, conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research and sponsored by Identity Guard, found 11% of households had at least one minor's data compromised in a breach last year. Nearly 40% of minors who found out their data was breached became victims of fraud. In comparison, only 19% of adults who were notified eventually became targeted.

High-profile breaches typically garner more attention; as a result, many people overlook the effects of identity fraud on minors. Children have limited financial histories, which presents a larger opportunity for fraudsters to leverage their information and build account networks. This "blank slate" lets perpetrators slowly grow accounts over time before tapping them.

Because children have no credit history, fraudsters usually fly under the radar as they build their schemes. They combine data from multiple victims to create identities. Social security numbers are particularly useful here because minors haven't yet established financial histories; as a result, their SSNs don’t raise red flags when they're used in identity fraud.