As a mother, it’s not like you need one more thing to stress about, but the raging identity theft epidemic is just too scary to ignore. Basically nonexistent a decade ago, identity theft has quickly become the most common crime in America — you’re twice as likely to be a victim of ID theft than you are of being in a car accident.

The entire U.S. population is just under 300 million, but more then 100 million people have already become victims of identity theft. That’s one in every three. Those are great odds in Vegas, but when you’re gambling with your credit score and bank account info… yikes!

It isn’t just adults who are victims. Who’d have thought that little Lola’s credit score was at risk? According to the Federal Trade Commission, five to seven percent of identity theft victims are under the age of 18. However, many industry experts agree that this number is significantly low because most child victims don’t even know they’re victims yet — they won’t find out their credit is ruined until they are applying for their first credit card or a driver’s license.

Why Does ID Theft Happen?

Identity theft is possible because there is no one government or credit group that is responsible for protecting your credit or ensuring accuracy. The government’s Social Security Administration issues a social security number and keeps a database of the personal information that corresponds to this number, but surprisingly the credit bureaus do not use this government data in creating a credit report.

“Credit bureaus aren’t in the business of protecting your data or even making sure it is accurate,” said Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, which provides an ID theft prevention program for adults and children, “That’s not the credit bureau’s job.”

According to Davis, the databases kept by the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are populated only when a credit card application is received. So once a thief has your social security number, they can “feed” bad information to the credit bureas that will corrupt your credit report.

Children are becoming a favored target because the credit bureaus will have no previous information relative to the child’s social security number. This situation gives the thief an opportunity to “build credit” using your child’s social security number but all their own information.

“It’s not like the credit bureau will receive the credit application and say, ‘Hey wait, this social security number belongs to an 8-year-old girl,’” said Davis.

Instead, the bureau will have no information on file and will take whatever information is listed on the application as the accurate data for that new social security number. Davis also said that thieves will often start out with small lines of credit and may actually make timely payments as they build the faulty credit record. Then they start using the pre-approved credit card offers with large lines of credit, eventually leaving your child’s social security number with a devastated credit record.

So What Can You Do?

With such terrible odds, it’s definitely time to do something to protect yourself from identity theft:

• To start with, beware of emails, phone calls or other solicitations for your personal data. Always verify who it is that is asking, and make sure there is a legitimate reason why you want them to have the requested information.
• Since mail is such a vulnerable point for your personal information, be sure that your mailbox has a lock.
• Secure important papers that you store at home (like bank account statements by keeping them in a locked file cabinet.
• Try to keep your files trim, only hang on to those papers you need.
• Invest in a paper shredder and don’t throw out any paperwork before shredding it.

If you want to be more proactive, here are some others steps you can take to protect your family:

• Place fraud alerts on your social security number with the three credit bureaus (Equifax 1-888-766-0008; Experian 1-888-397-3742; TransUnion 1-800-680-7289. This alert will put the credit bureaus on notice to speak to you directly before issuing any new lines of credit (so don’t be alarmed if you aren’t immediately approved when applying for a store credit card. Also keep in mind that these fraud alerts must be renewed every 90 days, but we found that when we called one of the credit bureaus they were able to pass along the alert to the other two, saving some legwork.
  COST: Free.
  
  
• Opt out of pre-approved credit card offers by calling 888-5-OPT-OUT. You will still get offers from the banks you have existing accounts with but not from any new ones.
  COST: Free.
  
  
• Once a quarter request a credit report for everyone in your family. You can do this by contacting the credit bureaus listed above. Ensure that all information on your report is accurate. For your kids, their social security numbers should return credit reports with no information — if there is any info that’s a red flag.
  COST: About $8 per report.
  
  
• Enroll in an identity theft prevention program. We like the one offered by LifeLock because it can cover your entire family. Once enrolled, LifeLock will take the above three steps for you to make sure your family’s personal information is secure. Although the program is meant to be preventative, they back it up with a $1 million guarantee — in the event your credit is compromised they’ll do whatever it takes to correct it.
  COST: Adults are $110 per year and each child is $10 per year.