Among the many thieves on the Internet trying to steal your personal information for their gain, their are parents that use their children’s personal information for their own gain.
Why do I feel this is true? In my line of work, I call many cable customers trying to retrieve their cable equipment. Many of these customers are disconnected because of non-payment or NSF checks. When I call them I ask for the name that is associated with the account of course, and more times than I wish, they will say why are you asking for my son, he’s 8 or something similar. These people usually have little or no inclination to returning their equipment, they usually hang up, or get all huffy and puffy at you for even calling in the first place. Of course they have no real reason to return it, because it’s not their credit the $1,000+ bill and cable equipment charge will be leveraged against.
A company doesn’t even need your social security number to report you to the credit agencies. They already have your name, oh wait they have the CHILD’S name, address, phone number and the fact that you have a past due account or need to return charges because you were disconnected. The reason I know they don’t need you social security number is, back in about Jun 2000 or so, I moved out and simply left my cable box at my apartment. Sure enough, years later there it was on my credit report, and I had never given this company my SSN.
IMHO, what these parents are doing is ruining their children’s credit years in advance of them needing it for such things as student loans, buying a car, a house, getting a job. That is a crime in my book, and they shouldn’t be allowed to do such things. Age verification should also go along with your SSN so that companies checking your credit history, or asking for it for collateral of sorts should know that a 7 year old person would rarely be getting phone service or cable television service.
JUST SAY NO!