RALEIGH -- Diamond Daye is an 11-year-old girl who spends her summer days at basketball camp and roaming the mall with her dad.
To creditors and utility companies, though, she's a 31-year-old woman who owes thousands in rent and cell phone and cable bills.
Diamond is one of a growing number of children whose identities have been stolen by grownups eager to get a quick pass on a credit check. Credit rating bureaus and utility companies say they are seeing more and more adults misusing children's identities in recent years.
Identity theft in general is an underreported crime, particularly thefts involving family members. In 2005, the Federal Trade Commission said that about 400,000 children had their identities misused; a spokesman for credit rating bureau Experian said experts estimate that number crept beyond a half-million in 2008.
"These are messes that cannot be undone easily," said Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert from Boston who travels the country advising people how to ward off identity theft. "The grownup is in absolute control of the child's affairs, and the child has to live with this for the rest of her life."
The ploy is tempting: Adults with mangled credit histories can create fraudulent identities and appear to have spotless records. And, if the thief racks up charges on a new credit line, he can often dodge creditors down the road. Because children don't routinely manage their own finances and aren't supposed to have credit histories, this scheme can go unnoticed for years. Often, children discover it when they apply for college loans or their first apartment. The problem can haunt them well into adulthood.
Bad guys want digits
"Bad guys love to get a child's Social Security number," said Demitra Wilson, director of public relations for Equifax, one of three national credit rating bureaus. "They create a synthetic identity and essentially have years before anyone will notice. For many, they've got a free pass for 18 years."
In Massachusetts, a young man learned when he applied to college that his estranged father had run up more than $22.5 million in debt under his identity; it took years and $30,000 in legal fees to clear his name. A divorced father in New York discovered that his ex-wife had used their children's identities to apply for credit cards in her name; their mother was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. In North Carolina, staff at the state Attorney General's office has heard from several young teens who've learned their identities were stolen when they tried to rent an apartment or apply for their first credit card.
The N.C. Attorney General's office has been fielding about two calls a month in the last year from parents or other loved ones worried about their child's identity being stolen, spokeswoman Noelle Talley said. Staff members at the Attorney General's office have been trained to help families wade through what can be complicated crimes.
In the last few years, the credit rating bureaus adopted rules to enable a parent or the courts to act on behalf of a child whose identity was abused, said Wilson, the Equifax spokeswoman. Companies now sell computer-based programs to help parents shield their child's identity. An identity theft support group in Texas is so alarmed by the latest wave of ID thefts that it has asked Congress to enhance the criminal penalties for those who steal the personal information of minors.
Back rent and unpaid bills
Diamond's mother, Maurine Walter, used her daughter's Social Security number when opening accounts and applying to apartments and utility services in Raleigh last fall, according to police and copies of documents from a cell phone company and cable vendor. Police in Virginia think she continued the scheme when she moved to Winchester early this year.
Walter, 31, faces a charge of identity theft on the belief that she used her daughter's Social Security number to pass a credit check while renting an apartment in Winchester, Va. Landlord Herman Kline said Walter used her daughter's Social Security number on the rental application; she then moved out, owing him several months worth of rent.
Walter didn't return several calls for comment. According to court records, she has an extensive history of writing bad checks and unpaid bills. Such red flags on her record would make it difficult to secure a loan or pass a credit check needed to rent an apartment.
Darwin Daye, who has lived in the Triangle since separating from Walter in 2005, got word from another relative last fall that his daughter's identity was being misused. Since then, he's been on a mission to clear his daughter's name.
Daye spends hours each week calling creditors and phone companies, asking them to research his daughter's Social Security number. So far, he's managed to clear up bills with Time Warner and Sprint as well as an apartment complex on Lynn Road in Raleigh. In two instances, unpaid bills had been turned over to collection agencies.
"Who knows how much more is out there that I can't get my hands on," Daye said. "I feel like every time I put out one fire, I see another in the distance."
Raleigh police declined to charge Walter on the advice of Wake County Assistant District Attorney Frank Jackson. Jackson said this week that he would not comment on the case.
It's a tense topic for Daye and his daughter. Relations between Daye and Walter have been strained for a while as they've tried to negotiate custody of their daughter.
Daye said his daughter thinks he is stirring up trouble for something that seems trivial. Daye said he tries to shield her from his efforts but wishes she could understand that he's looking out for her best interest.
"I want to see from front to back what's on Diamond's Social Security number and her name," he said. "This is my daughter's future; it's no minor matter."
News researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.
