This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.
Protect Your Child from Identity Theft
Did you know that over 50,000 children in the sunshine state become victims of identity theft every year? Over $100 million is stolen every year from children whose identities have been compromised so it’s important to be vigilant and stop identity theft before it starts. Once identity theft has occurred the effects can continue for years so it’s important to “nip it in the bud.”
Several years back our oldest son was a victim of identity theft. Even after all this time he can’t open checking accounts, savings accounts, he can’t get a credit card or even put utilities in his name. Unfortunately we never had the knowledge or the means to do anything about it so we have dealt with this for a long time.
There is a new Florida law that protects children from identity theft. This law helps parents by making it easy to set up credit records and freeze them if there is any suspicious activity. Having the ability to freeze their credit is a very effective means to blocking identity thieves as it stops them in their tracks.
All you have to do to create a credit report for your child and freeze it is contact Equifax, Experian and Trans Union and provide them with the sample letters from www.FreshFromFlorida.com/ProtectYourChild. The whole process is really quite simple and doesn’t cost much at all. It only costs a one-time fee of $10 per agency to freeze your child’s credit. If your child is currently a victim, the fees will be waived. How great is that? Every little bit helps right?
Any parent or legal guardian of minors up to age 16 may sign up their child and the freeze will last until the parent/legal guardian contacts the credit bureaus to remove the freeze. If nobody gets back with the credit bureaus the freeze will last until the child reaches adulthood and asks for the freeze to be removed. Remember, all it takes is for a parent or guardian to contact the agencies. Identity theft can be a real pain for the whole family and the repercussions can follow children around for the rest of their lives. Identity thieves have been targeting children because they usually have clean credit histories and it is usually years before the crime is detected. It’s never too early to start protecting your child from identity theft and with this new legislation, it has never been easier to do something about it.
