Thousands of children streaming out of the state foster care system discover they are victims of identity theft, the California Office of Privacy Protection reports.
“Children make attractive targets for identity thieves, because the crime is usually not discovered for many years, giving thieves years of unobserved use of the stolen identities,” the report stated.
Foster children are especially vulnerable to identity theft because their information is passed through many hands as they move through the system.
As many as 30 percent of foster children may be the victims of identity theft, according to Robert Fellmeth, University of San Diego law professor and director of Children’s Advocacy Institute.
An NBC News report revealed, “Poor parents or other family members often use their young relatives’ Social Security numbers” out of economic necessity to keep the lights on, put food on the table or feed an addiction.
The impact to these youths is far reaching. “They may find out that they cannot rent an apartment, get a student loan or even get a job as the result of a credit history ruined by identity theft committed while they were in foster care,” the privacy office’s 2011 report said.
Many times, the children may not know that they have been victims of identity theft until debtors put liens on their accounts, and their wages are garnished for debts they did not incur.
Fox News reported one case where a former foster care girl discovered someone racked up $3,000 in bills in her name when she was 8 years old.
Other examples uncovered by the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs and Department of Children and Family:
More than 100 victims of identity theft, with the average amount of debt of $1,800.
• One child had been saddled with a $217,000 home loan.
In 2006, California enacted a law intended to clear foster children’s credit records before they leave the system. But because of procedural flaws and limited funding, implementation of the law was delayed, the privacy office reported.
Congress passed a law in 2011 requiring child welfare agencies to provide all 16-18 year old foster youth with free credit checks and help to interpret and resolve inconsistencies before they age-out of the system, reported NBC News.
Advocates contend that state and federal laws have not been fully implemented, and even when checks are run, thousands of young people still age-out of the system with unresolved credit issues.
There are “no teeth behind the requirement, case workers are notoriously overburdened, and these requirements are not always followed,” stated Sam Cobbs, director of First Place for Youth, a California organization for foster kids. The credit-reporting agencies have not always been easy to work with, Cobb concludes.
–By John Lam
