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A social security number should be a persons most-guarded piece ofpersonal information.
But what if its afamily memberasking for your childs social security number?
Bored Pandareached out toMichael Bruemmer, an expert at a major American credit report bureau, Experian.
Family members may not have any malicious intent when asking for that personal information.
Bruemmer says that every time parents share their childs social security number, there may be potential risks.
That number can be misplaced, misused, and stolen by criminals, he says.
Michael Bruemmer has some advice for people who are afraid their children might be victims of identity theft.
First, I would recommend checking to see if their child has a credit report with each credit bureau.
This is to ensure that they have not been a victim of fraud.
Parents with children 14 years or older can access this option via Experiansminor credit reportrequest form.
Its not necessary to create a childs credit report solely to freeze it, but parents can do so.
When the childs credit is frozen, lenders cannot issue credit.
Parents should follow up with filing a police report and filing afraud reportwith the FTC.
Check out the results:
