Theft of Children's Identities Often Goes Unnoticed for Years

By Diane C. Lade
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 1, 2008

Randy Waldron Jr. deposited his first paycheck when he was an infant. By the time he was in elementary school, he had bought and sold property, cars and restaurants and racked up tax liens because of financial problems. He had a felony record at age 7. At least so said credit reports, property records and court documents.

But the true culprit, Waldron said, was his estranged father, Randolph Waldron Sr., of Loxahatchee, who covertly used the boy's Social Security number for 22 years, beginning shortly after his birth.

Consumer advocates say the Waldron case is a classic example of a serious problem: child identity theft. The Federal Trade Commission estimates about 500,000 identity theft incidents annually involve children under age 19, with the majority of the thefts occurring between birth and age 5. That's about 5 percent of all suspected ID theft cases. Federal officials said they have seen the numbers rise slightly during the past several years.

Often, but not always, a parent or guardian is involved. Theresa Ronnebaum, an identity theft victim advocate with the Florida Attorney General's Office, said she thinks that as a result, the crime is seriously underreported. The betrayal and trust issues, along with the number of years that often pass before deception is discovered, make prosecution difficult, Ronnebaum said.

Parents often start off small, using a child's number to open a utility or cell phone account because they can't get credit under their own identities. "Soon it snowballs to credit cards or business loans," said Ronnebaum, whose ID theft hotline has logged at least 200 Florida cases involving children since 2002.

The nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego estimates more than half of the child ID theft reports it has examined involve parents or family members. But strangers also can pick up a Social Security number, which has no age identifier, from pediatric or school records, from stolen ID cards or through data breaches, said center founder Linda Foley. Foley advises parents to watch for red flags such as credit card offers or bills addressed to the child arriving in the mail. But she cautions against asking for a credit report on a child if there are no signs of trouble because it opens a file under that youngster's name. "Then creditors can say, 'Oh, look, there's a consumer,'" she said. "What we want is for a minor to have no credit file."

One reason for the emergence of child identity theft is 90 percent of Americans now get their Social Security number days after they are born. In the past, most Americans applied for a number when seeking a first job. But since 1989, the Internal Revenue Service has required a Social Security identifier for dependent children age 1 and older in order for parents to claim them on their taxes.

Some law enforcement agencies also think child ID theft is becoming more attractive to thieves as personal information becomes harder to steal from adults, who are becoming more vigilant about monitoring their credit.

Paul E. Bresson, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington, D.C., said a "world of financial hurt" can happen between the time a theft occurs and when it's discovered. Often, that gap is a decade or more — when the victim applies for a school loan, a credit card or a job. Waldron was 17, and planning for college, when his mother tried to add him to her credit card. The request was denied on the basis that Waldron had bad credit. "We discovered it was no mistake, that my father had been running his whole life with my Social Security number for years," said Waldron, 27, a commercial pilot now living in Boston. In affidavits that Waldron submitted to federal court after his father filed for bankruptcy under his identity, the senior Waldron admitted he had "fraudulently" used his son's Social Security number for years "without his knowledge or approval." It took Waldron 10 years to untangle his records from his father's — documents that showed a felony conviction in South Florida and a $150,000 civil judgment.

The younger Waldron said he initially could not get a student loan and was turned down for jobs because he couldn't get required security clearances. He eventually had no choice but to get a new Social Security number, a step the federal government considers a last resort. Waldron's father could not be reached for comment for this article. Waldron had a hard time convincing a Florida bankruptcy judge that the actions committed by his father, who had an almost identical name, were not his own.

"I still have negative things on my credit report and am hounded by debt collectors," he said.

Diane Lade can be reached at dlade@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4295.

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