 TITLE: What Is Child Identity Theft? CONTENT: How to Know Whether a Child's Identity Has Been Stolen\n------------------------------------------------------\nIt's tough to know if your child's identity has been stolen. In some cases, you might not even find out until your child goes to apply for their first line of credit. Since children aren't actively using and checking their credit score, there's a low likelihood that they'll find out about their compromised identity until something bad happens.\nThere are some things that could tip you off that you child's information got into the wrong hands:\n*   **If your child receives mail from a creditor or debt collection agency.** This may mean a fraudster got their hands on your child's information and opened accounts in their name. If you know your child has no accounts, this is a large red flag that their identity has been compromised.\n*   **If you check their credit and see unknown accounts.** If for any reason you check your child's credit reports, look to see if there are any accounts you don't recognize. Remember that credit histories are not started until your child opens an account in their name (or you do it for them to give them authorized-user status), so if they have a credit report but have never opened a line of credit, that may mean their information has been compromised.\n*   **Your child's online accounts have been posting spam.** If a fraudster gets ahold of your child's login credentials for an online account, they could send spam emails or message. If this happens to your kid, this could be a sign that one of their accounts has been hacked.\nUnfortunately, if you've noticed any of these things, your child's personal information has probably already been compromised. The sooner you catch these breaches the better, so be vigilant and think about creating an identity monitoring plan for your child. END