Repair Your Credit Profile

Identity theft often begins at home, surveys find In many cases, the thief is a relative, an in-home employee or friend.

About 10 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.

In the five years since his divorce, Eric Wagenhauser had moved on with his life.

He had remarried and was sharing custody of the three children from his first marriage with his former wife.

Then last year he discovered a new wrinkle on American divorce: His former wife had used the children’s Social Security numbers to obtain nine credit cards in their names.

Wagenhauser’s ordeal over the next year, which involved police departments in two Texas counties, banks, credit bureaus and the Social Security Administration, is familiar to many identity theft victims: The crime often begins at home.

Though most victims never learn who stole their identity, half of those who do say the thief was a family member, friend, neighbor or in-home employee, according to surveys by the Federal Trade Commission and Javelin Strategy and Research, a private research firm.

The surveys estimate that 9 million to 10 million Americans are victims of identity theft each year.

Wagenhauser’s former wife began applying for credit cards in the children’s names soon after the divorce.

According to Wagenhauser, she ran up about $200 in unpaid bills, which grew to about $1,000 with late fees and interest penalties.

His former wife, Ivy Ash, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent use of a credit card this year and is now in a Texas prison.

Identity theft involving family members takes many forms, said Betsy Broder, assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission’s division of privacy and identity protection.

A child steals a parent’s identity to buy drugs, one sibling steals another’s identity to try to avoid arrest or debt.

The fraud in the Texas case went on for five years before Wagenhauser became aware of what was happening.

By then, the mother’s actions had created credit histories for two of the underage children, which Wagenhauser worries will cause them future trouble.

“When my kids turn 18 and go to college, they’re not going to be able to buy a car or get a student loan because they’ve got bad credit,” Wagenhauser said.

“No one’s going to rent them an apartment.

They’re going to be turned down for jobs because there’s so many companies that run credit histories.”

Parents can look out for clues that their children’s identities have been compromised, said Jay Foley, a founder and director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that helps victims.

“Let’s say Mom and Dad are divorced, and Junior goes to stay with Dad,” Foley said.

“My oldest daughter, who is old enough to understand, has been told that I am the one who put her mother in jail.



Identity theft often begins at home, surveys find (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)

In the five years since his divorce, Eric Wagenhauser had moved on with his life. He had remarried and was sharing custody of the three children from his first marriage with his former wife. Then last year he discovered a new wrinkle on American divorce: His former wife had used the children’s Social Security numbers to obtain nine credit cards in their names. Wagenhauser’s ordeal over the next

technorati tags:identity+theft, stolen+identity, credit+card+theft