Thaindian News

Aug 3 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Warnings from the FBI state that a new wave of Identity theft has moved across the United States as thieves are now targeting children’s social security numbers while illegal online businesses sell dormant number which mostly belong to kids, and the buyer then uses the number to obtain credit cards.

Assistant US Attorney Linda Marshall from Kansas City states, “If people are obtaining enough credit by fraud, we’re back to another financial collapse. We tend to talk about it as the next wave.” An an FBI agent in Kansas City, Julia Jensen added, “The back door is wide open. We’re trying to get lenders to understand the risks.” She discovered the crimes while she was investigating mortgage fraud.

This new wave of crime is, unfortunately, hard to track down. Computers are used to obtain information which is available to the public and then a random search of social security numbers is done. Those numbers which are not being used or have not applied for credit, such as kids, are being sold online.

Since these kids do not have a credit history, the thieves will often get credit cards and build the credit, in order to buy larger items. Jensen states, “There’s good stuff and bad stuff. A deceased person’s Social Security number is less usable than a child’s.” And then she adds, “High quality is buying a number the service has checked to make sure no one else is using it.”

Craigslist recently removed 200 ads from their site which contained the code word “CPN” or credit privacy number, letting the potential buyers know that the social security number were for sale, and hoping to not alert the authorities.