ID thieves targeting kids

The latest surprise about identity theft is that it's now victimizing children of all ages. Some have bad credit records even before they get their driver's licenses. The Seattle Times led with the story of one 3-year-old whose mother tried to start a savings account for her, only to find someone had "beaten her to it," using the child's social security number in what the FBI is calling "one of the fastest-growing crimes in America." This is not just an Internet story, since in many cases parents don't know how the tiniest children's personal data are being stolen. But it's good Congress is taking notice of the problem, zooming in on one source: huge databases of personal info like those of ChoicePoint (from whom personal data of 145,000-500,000 people were stolen) and Westlaw, which one lawmaker said makes ChoicePoint look like "child's play." The Washington Post, New York Times, and CNET report (CNET's today).