Imagine you’re a teenager, applying for credit to buy your first car or maybe a loan to go to university. You don’t remember taking out a credit card when you were six years old, but the bank is adamant, and now you have a poor credit rating and in their eyes, you’re persona non grata. That future suddenly isn’t so bright. How could this be?
Cyber criminals are hacking into sensitive networks to steal the identities of children and are selling it on in underground market places.
Personal information is leaked in data breaches all the time, but what makes the data on children so useful to cyber criminals is how they don’t have any credit history – so they offer a free pass for fraudulent purchases, loans and other transactions without the barriers that might be associated with data belonging to adults.
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Source: ZDNet