Act to protect your child from identity theft

Or, even worse, someone close to the child — a parent, aunt, uncle or family friend — uses the minor’s data to get credit cards, cellphones or utility accounts in the minor’s name. This, too, can go undetected for decades.

Last year, more than 1 million children were victims of identity fraud, according to a new survey by Javelin Strategy & Research. The survey was sponsored by Identity Guard, an identity-theft protection service, and was conducted online with 5,000 U.S. parents and guardians.

An overwhelming majority (66 percent) of the young identity-theft victims were under 8.

“We’re all much more cognizant of the risks that we face as adults, and it’s harder for us to understand why it would happen to a child,” said Al Pascual, Javelin’s senior vice president of research and head of fraud and security. “But we need to recognize this is a very real problem.”

When compared with adults, the incidents of child identity theft are relatively small; just under 2 percent of minors become victims. Yet Javelin put the losses in child identity theft at $2.6 billion last year.

And who would do this to a child?

While only 7 percent of adults fall victim to fraud committed by someone they know, 60 percent of child fraud victims have a relationship with the perpetrator, Pascual said.

Now comes the question of what do to if you discover your child’s identity has been stolen.

Act right away. Contact the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to see if a credit file exists. If so, put a security freeze (also known as a credit freeze) on all the credit files, which prevents lenders from pulling your child’s credit report.

“We understand parents may want to take preventive steps to protect their child’s personal information,” said David Blumberg, senior director of public relations for TransUnion.

“However, a proactive file freeze is a drastic solution that we only recommend when a child’s identity is being used fraudulently. Fraudsters have used the file-freeze process as a way to create a file, when one did not exist, and then use it to perpetrate fraud against a minor.”

Ohio is among the 29 states that allow parents, legal guardians or other representatives to place a freeze.

If you choose not to do that, you can regularly monitor your child’s credit reports. Be sure to contact all the businesses where you see fraudulent accounts. File a police report.

“Be vigilant for suspicious activity, like mail addressed to your child containing bills or financial offers,” Blumberg said.