If your child gets called up for jury duty or receives some kind of bill in the post don't just assume it was a clerical error. Quite often it is the first time that families will know about the issue. Over 2/3 of the victims were under 7 years of age.
Normally adults are the prime target of hackers who will look to empty a bank account, access their corporate network or cause other such damage. Children however offer them a blank slate. Quite often they can use the child's identity to apply for credit or purchase items online.
The big problem for families of victims is that proving you are innocent can still be tricky, even if the victim is 4 years old. Banks can be slow to return money for simple fraudulent transactions at the best of times so showing the you had nothing to do with it can be time consuming and difficult.
Over 60% of victims know the person who committed the crime.
To make matters worse family members can quite often be responsible for the identity theft. This can have been brought on by gambling addictions or other monetary struggles. Families will need to make sure what has transpired.