NEW YORK - Among the people Linda Foley is currently working to help are a 3-year-old whose Social Security number is being used by someone for work purposes. And there's a 5-year-old whose identity is linked to driver's licenses, arrest warrants for drunken driving, and a warrant for unpaid child support.
These stories may sound unusual, but Foley has heard of many such situations since she started the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center in 1999, and she's convinced that the poaching of children's identities is more common than anyone knows.
Because identity theft is typically associated with financial matters like the misuse of credit cards, most people don't consider the possibility that their child's personal information could be stolen and misused. But more than 34,000 identity theft reports to the Federal Trade Commission from 2005 to 2007 concerned children under age 18.
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That was the case for Randy Waldron Jr., now 27, who has spent the last decade trying to clean up his reputation.
"My father began using my Social Security number in 1982," said Waldron. But his father was not a part of his life as a child, and it wasn't until sixteen years later, when Waldron was applying for college, that it was discovered he had run up a total of $22.5 million in debt in his son's name.
link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26871892/?GT1=43001According to the story it's pften a family member or someone close to the family that steals the info
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