Teens Targeted for Identity Theft

If teens didn't have enough going on around them, now they are having to deal with identity theft.

Some teens must deal with strangers who steal their identity but, more often than not, more teens are facing identity theft from their own parents.

Parents get into financial difficulties and use their teens' social security number to open up alternate means of credit.

The Dallas Morning News reported:

A Houston student in one of Nevels' classes discovered her mother had stolen her identity when she was denied credit for a laptop for college.

"She said she'll just deal with it later," Nevels said. "She didn't want to deal with the conflict that she would have with her mother, who doesn't know that she knows."

Foley said her center has been getting "a lot of calls" on child identity theft," adding: "We're getting them from older teens, college-age students and from parents that someone in the immediate family is stealing a child's identity."

The fears of young victims are very real if they report the crime, Foley said.

Foley said she knows of three victims of identity theft by their parents who waited until they turned 18 to move out and report the crime to the police.

"They were afraid of the physical repercussions because they were still in the house," she said.

Young people need to learn early what identity theft is, Foley said.

"We need to start educating kids at the middle school and high school level about what is identity theft and that it's not right for somebody other than you to be using your Social Security number," she said.

The impact on young people can be far-reaching.

Teens face all kinds of issues from "without". Now they are having to face them from "within".