I’m just trying to understand why this is so easy. At least in the U.S. it is illegal for a minor to open, say, a credit line (I believe). If a company has my ssn, addresses, relatives, and tons of other personal information, why are they unable to verify my age? Is there not a way for companies to access this through a government service?
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Full identity theft of a child is not as easy as it once was… But as far as opening credit accounts – it is not strictly illegal, but it comes with enough issues that most banks either will not issue or only issue in specific circumstances. it is also fairly easy for the credit reporting agencies to get the information wrong on someone with limited history as they are collecting it mostly from other financial data and have limited means of verifying it even when they encounter something that might warrant it
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SSN’s are really bad at identifying people, and really shouldn’t be used. In fact, early cards say on them, not to be used as identification. CGP Grey made a really good video on the subject.
I actually am a fraud investigator that deals directly with identity theft. The main issue is lenders use credit bureaus to determine your information. Credit bureaus only verify what has been reported to them. The reason identity thieves use children is they are below legal age for credit, so they know their bureau will have no information present. They can essentially write the book for the social security number and build a fake identity off of it for whatever reason they need. Usually it’s to acquire goods or services. The government can and WILL verify a social security number, but only with a signed SSA-89 form, and only if the lender requires it. Usually they just hit up another lender until one doesn’t require the form.
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So what if you use the same of someone recently deceased. Why is held accountable for the debt?
From my understanding, it is usually a person who already knows the SSN that steals it. AKA parents. There are hundreds of stories on reddit of parents opening up bills in their kids names.
Because the US does not have a standarized mandatory ID card like in all EU countries but the UK.
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I don’t know about it being “illegal” to extend credit to a child (per se), but back in business law class, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, they taught us that contract law is supposed to prevent people from entering into a legally binding contract until they reach their majority (become an adult).
…and that this could result in the company *not* being able to legally require the child to keep an agreement, *but* if the child holds up their end of the contract, they *are* able to legally hold the company’s feet to the fire, to force them to keep their end.
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