Baby's Identity Safety: Smart Ways to Protect Her Credit

Just over a year ago, Frank Blackwood watched a television program warning viewers that children might be susceptible to identity theft. Blackwood's wife had fallen victim to identity theft, but he had a hard time believing his two children, ages two and one at the time, could be victims, too. Blackwood, on staff at a Baptist church in Texas, decided to call a credit reporting agency to check—just in case.

"When I finally got through to a real human being, I gave her my oldest daughter's Social Security number (SSN) and then there was silence on the other end of the line," recalls Blackwood. "She asked me to repeat the numbers. Then she said, 'Uh-oh.'"

Bad news: Someone had applied for and received credit using his oldest daughter's SSN. And the news got worse. His younger daughter had been an identity theft victim, too. Over the next few months, Blackwood estimates that he spent over 600 hours fixing his daughters' credit histories.