Child identities provide blank slates for fraudsters

ID Watchdog and Javelin Strategy & Research want to raise awareness of child identity fraud and help employees understand how they can better protect their family. 
 Download Javelin Child Identity Fraud Report

Child identity fraud is a real risk

Why are children vulnerable to identity theft?

“Children oftentimes aren’t tapping credit until they apply for a student loan or they go in for their first job. So, you could have a good 15 to 16 years before a child is really using or looking at their credit. This makes their information a prime target for cybercriminals because its use can go undetected for so long.”

Tracy Kitten
Director of Fraud & Security, Javelin Strategy & Research

94 percent

of U.S. households were NOT enrolled in an identity protection service when their child's personal information was breached1

ID Watchdog is committed to helping protect child identities

Our family plan offers more features that help protect minors than any other provider.2

  • Child Credit Lock

    Activate a Child Credit Lock for your minor child to help better protect against credit fraud in your child’s name by creating an Equifax credit report for your child, then locking it to help prevent access to it by potential lenders and creditors. 

  • Child Credit Monitoring

    Scans the Equifax credit database for a child’s Social Security number and alerts you if a credit file potentially exists or is created under your child’s identity.

  • Social Account Monitoring

    Notifies you of potential cyberbullying or reputation-damaging information directed at you or your family on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube).

See all features for children
Help monitor and detect suspicious activity
for loved ones of all ages

Monitors your credit report from one or all three nationwide credit bureaus (Equifax®, TransUnion®, Experian®) depending on your plan and provides alerts of activity, which if unexpected, could be a sign of potential fraud.

Scans websites, chat rooms, and other forums known for trafficking stolen personal and financial information for compromised credentials including Social Security numbers and email addresses. Enter additional credentials such as credit cards, bank accounts, and driver’s license to be included in the scanning.

Helps you better protect against account take overs and fraudulent new accounts opened in your name by alerting you, if we detect in the monitored network, a high-risk validation performed by a financial institution using your identity. These validations are required for new account openings, adding or changing an account holder, and other high-risk activity such as wire transfers and large withdrawals.

Monitors your identity and sends an alert if we detect new specialty finance activity in the monitored network using your identity including payday, subprime, high-cost installment, rent-to-own, and other loans outside of the traditional banking system.

Scours billions of public records and other databases including licenses and certifications to search for new names or addresses associated with your identity which, if unexpected, could be a sign of potential identity theft.

Monitors the United States Postal Service (USPS) National Change of Address database for addresses associated with your name and detects the rerouting of your mail to a new address in case it was done without your knowledge.
To learn more about ID Watchdog as a benefit for employees and their families,
please click here to contact our Sales team.

  1. Javelin Strategy & Research, Child Identity Fraud: A Web of Deception and Loss, November 2021. ID Watchdog co-sponsored the report.

  2. Based on a feature comparison of the top family plans of ID Watchdog and leading competitors as of June 1, 2022.

  3. Monitoring from TransUnion® and Experian® will take several days to begin.

  4. Dark Web Monitoring scans thousands of internet sites where consumers’ personal information is suspected of being bought and sold, and is constantly adding new sites to those it searches. However, the internet addresses of these suspected internet trading sites are not published and frequently change, so there is no guarantee that ID Watchdog is able to locate and search every possible internet site where consumers’ personal information is at risk of being traded.

  5. The monitored network does not cover all businesses or transactions.