Teens Identity Theft

Posted by MoneySavvy on Aug 4th, 2010 | no comments home title

How do you keep your teens from getting their identity stolen? This is very important today with the popularity of the internet.

However, while the internet is a very popular place for identity theft, your teen’s information can get stolen offline as well. For instance, someone serving you at a restaurant could jot down a credit card number. Or your teen could lose their credit card at a store.

And if your child’s credit gets taken, the thief will use their card to make a lot of purchases. Since they will not pay for them, this will cause your kids’ credit score to go down severely. While this might be able to get recovered, it’s a long and arduous process.

So how do you prevent identity theft? Here are four sure ways to avoid them:

1. Avoid unsecure sites

You don’t have to worry about them giving sensitive information to larger sites like Amazon or eBay. However, many of the smaller sites are not very trustworthy.

Many of them will take their information and use it themselves. How do you avoid these sites? Just make sure you read reviews about any site they are considering giving sensitive information to. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

2. Avoid scams

Often times scammers will send fake emails from legitimate sites such as PayPal or eBay, asking for their sensitive information. They will usually say they need to update their member information, or something to that effect.

The emails usually look very official. However, legitimate sites will never email anyone asking for sensitive info. Alert your teens to these common scams.

3. Shred sensitive info

This is one of the most popular methods of preventing identity theft, because it works. If your kids have bills and other financial documents they are trashing, shred them first. Anything that has their license, social security, bank account, or credit card number must be cut up.

They can either do this themselves or purchase a shredder. This will cut it much faster, although it’s obviously more expensive.

4. Be wary of file sharing sites

These are extremely widely used among teens. They are also among the most dangerous sites. They enable people to give others their computer files, so it can easily go wrong if important data is transferred. Be certain the computer’s settings will prevent any important files from getting shared.

Identity theft is very common. In some instances you can’t do anything about it, such as if somebody hacks into your child’s bank account. However, most times you can prevent it. Implement these four tips, and your kids should be safe.