One in 40 households with children under age 18 had at least one child whose personal information was compromised by identity criminals, according to a new survey sponsored by ITAC, the Identity Theft Assistance Center. "This survey provides the first solid, verifiable statistics on the causes and consequences of child identity fraud," ITAC President Anne Wallace said. "The results will help ITAC and its government and nonprofit partners improve strategies to prevent and detect child identity fraud and assist victims" in recovering from the crime.

The survey, conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, confirms that the incidence of child identity theft is lower than the incidence of adult identity theft. Findings also show that criminals often combine a child's Social Security number with other data to create a synthetic identity, which is more difficult to detect than account takeovers and other types of identity theft. The report is available by request at identitytheftassistance@gmail.com.