It’s a scary world out there – especially if you are a parent or a teacher, and especially if you are working with a child with unique learning needs. It seems as though everywhere you turn, there is someone else looking to take advantage.
How do you keep a child with diverse learning needs safe from fraud and identity theft? Unfortunately, it’s a daunting task – and sometimes, despite your best efforts, your student will find himself a victim of this frustrating crime.
However, the best way to stay safe is to stay informed. Making sure your child knows how to stay protected is your best line of defense. Here are some tips on how to follow through.
Explain the Ins and Outs of Financial Fraud to Your Child
Make sure your child understands exactly what fraud and identity theft are – and how they can keep themselves and their finances safe. The reality is that most criminals aren’t going to be trying to steal money from a teen – they are going to be stealing an identity.
There are all kinds of components that make up someone’s identity, and it’s important that you teach all of them to your child. Some of the most essential include:
- First, middle, and last name
- Social security number
- Date of birth
- Address
- Birth certificate
- Medical information
- Passport
- Driver’s license
- Phone number
Explain to your child exactly what identity theft is and what kinds of problems can occur as a result (such as opening credit cards in their name or selling their information).
Help Them Protect Fragile Information
Therefore, teach your child that the most important thing that they can do is to protect their social security number and other fragile personal identifying information (like an address, birth date, and other data).
Often, scammers can build a credit file with just a name and social security number. While it’s important that your child knows his or her own social security number as he sets out on his own, it’s of equal importance that he understands what he should and should not do with that information.
Provide your child with a safe deposit box to store his social security card, birth certificate, and other documents, too.
Explain the Importance of Privacy on Social Media
Social media is a wonderful tool to stay connected with friends and family, to learn, and of course, to kill some extra time. However, it’s important that you teach your child the value of discretion on social media. Personal information needs to be kept off a profile. Information like an address, birth date, and other confidential financial information needs to be left off in order to stay protected from identity theft and fraud.
Educate your student on the value of interacting online without presenting personal information up to identity thieves on a silver platter – and make sure they know not to accept friend requests from people they do not know.
Assess Device-Readiness
Does your six-year-old really need an iPhone? That’s a personal decision, but knowing when your child is of an appropriate age to have his own device is one that you should weigh carefully.
If you decide that your child is ready to be technologically independent, make sure he knows how to turn off a phone’s geotagging feature to avoid sharing his location. Discuss the risks of using shopping apps or online banking through a smartphone or shared Wi-Fi connection and make sure your child knows how to address said risks before you make a single purchase of a device.
Beware of Games, Surveys, and Quizzes
The number one way that hackers will steal information is to get their victims to give it to them directly. “Sure,” your teen might scoff, “but why would I tell them that information?”
Unfortunately, it’s not always a cut and dry situation – in most cases, your child will have no idea that they are compromising their personal information. Hackers’ attempts to steal personal information are often thinly disguised as games, quizzes, and surveys. These are usually offered up by fake websites (warning – they look just like real ones!) that offer fun games to play.
These websites don’t necessarily target teens in particular, but teens tend to be the most vulnerable. They’re much more likely to fall for phishing scams that look like games or surveys – they’ll ask innocuous-seeming questions like your pet’s name to learn the information that might be included in a password.
Therefore, it’s important that you teach your teen to be vigilant at all times when interacting online. Threats are everywhere, and while you don’t necessarily need to be paranoid, it pays to be attentive.
Go Through a Credit Report
Another way you can teach your child about identity theft and fraud is to walk them through what a credit report looks like. You’ll need to be able to explain the importance of credit in our modern world as well as why having a good credit score is so important.
Using an actual credit report like this one (you can also use one of your own, if you’re working with your own child and are comfortable doing so) explain to your child what all of the individual elements mean and how they are important.
Also, check with your teen by their 16th birthday to see if they have a credit report. Generally, minors should not have credit files before they turn 18 and start using their credit. If such a file exists, you will need to help your teen correct it so that they have credit when they ultimately need it.
Try the Social Engineering Challenge
Does your child with unique learning needs enjoy playing computer games? If so, you might want to use this helpful tool. The Cybersecurity Lab is a computer game that teaches students about the insecurity of the Internet, along with what motivates hackers to steal your most valuable information.
Play a few rounds with your teen and explain the ins and outs of identity theft to him as you work through the various cybersecurity challenges. It might prove to be a bit more relevant than if you simply lecture about the dangers of identity theft.
Teach Privacy Settings
Your child can be absolutely terrified of identity theft and willing to do anything possible to avoid it – yet not truly understand how it can be done. One of the easiest ways to help your child take action is to show her how she can manage her own privacy settings. Work with your teen to adjust privacy settings on social media pages and any electronic devices that she might use.
One often-overlooked resource when it comes to preventing identity theft and fraud has to do with the use of secure passwords and two-factor authentication tools for login. Teach your teen some helpful tips when it comes to creating passwords, such as using nonsense words that are at least eight characters long and contain a combination of symbols, numbers, and capitalized letters.
Similarly, you should teach your teen not to use security questions for which the answers are easily discoverable. For example, if “mother’s maiden name” is always the prompt that needs to be answered when a password is forgotten, it’s not going to take very long for a thief to figure it out. That information can be found with a quick Google search.
The infographic below can serve as a helpful tool when you’re trying to come up with safe, secure passwords – consider downloading our full resolution version and printing it out or making a poster and keeping it near your student’s computer.
If you’re still having trouble emphasizing the importance of being discreet online, you may want to play a few rounds of this game. Beat the Thief is a cool activity that teaches kids the importance of privacy in an online world.
Make Sure Your Child Knows What to Do If Identity Theft Happens
Despite taking all the necessary precautions, identity theft and fraud can – and unfortunately do – still often happen. Make sure your teen knows what exactly he needs to do if it occurs.
Keeping the lines of communication open is key, but your child also needs to know about the other steps that should be taken (such as contacting law enforcement and credit reporting companies as well as filing a fraud report). You can find more free resources to use with your child here.
Understand the Risks of Fraud and Identity Theft (and How to Avoid Them)
Did you know that children are up to 35 times more likely to have their identities stolen than adults? A 2012 study revealed that 1 in 40 households with children under the age of 18 had at least one child with personal information that had been compromised by identity thieves.
Unfortunately, it often takes a long time for identity fraud and identity theft to be detected. After all, it’s not likely that your 14-year-old plans on opening up a line of credit any time soon. As a result, it’s important that you start taking steps now to teach your child about the dangers of fraud and identity theft so that it doesn’t happen without them even realizing it.
These tips should help you teach the teen in your life about fraud and identity theft, no matter his age or level of financial independence. Stay safe out there!
Further Reading
- Federal Trade Commission: Identity Theft
- High School Financial Planning Program: Identity Thieves Target Teens
- Randy Hutchinson: Check child’s credit report at 16