It's hard to imagine a toddler who owns a new car or is thousands of dollars in debt, but experts say it's happening all over the country.
It's of one of the fastest growing crimes in America; thieves who steal children's identities.
With one year left in high school, Nicole Garcia is excited about a career in the navy and gaining some independence. Wanting to prepare her for the future, her father went to the bank to open Nicole's very first checking account, but something unexpected happened.
"He ran her number again and he said yeah someone is using her identity," says Nicole’s father, Raymond Garcia.
Someone had stolen Nicole's identity and opened up multiple accounts and credit cards in her name.
"When I found out I was, devastating it’s like, wow how could that happen to my daughter? You know I realized it could happen to anyone," says Garcia.
Research by AllClear ID, a fraud protection website, found that identity theft of children under the age of five has actually jumped 105% nationally since last year. Children are being targeted 35 times more often than adults.
Experts say it can result in bad credit, bad background checks, defaulted loans and years of lost opportunities for the innocent victims.
Nikki Junker with the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego says most cases of child ID theft go unreported.
"It can be costly but mostly its time its incredible time consuming it can take years and years to clean it up," says Junker.
She says often the victim and their family never discover who took their identity or how it happened.
Experts say parents need to look for warning signs, like unusual mail addressed to their kids.
"If you start to get credit cards applications in the mail, if you start getting auto insurance paperwork in the mail, strange phone calls," says Junker.
If you do suspect your child is a victim, "You are going to have to contact the three different credit reporting agencies and prove that your child is who they say that they are," says Junket.
Nicole's father says after a lot of phone calls, emails, and letters, he finally cleared his daughters name and credit.
"I say it took me at least three months just to get this process going," says Junker.
now only 17-years-old, Nicole’s learned to be very careful with her personal information.
"At first, I was like wow somebody wants to be me, I took it as a joke. If my dad didn't get to it in time when I grow up I would be stuck," says Nicole.
If you're worried about child identity theft, you can use AllClear ID's "ChildScan Service." They offer a free, child identity theft report that searches credit, employment and criminal records, as well as medial accounts.
The sooner you detect the problem, the better chance you have of fixing it.
(Information courtesy NBC News)
