The Painful Truth. Whose name is it anyway?

An estimated 500,000 children have had their identities stolen by a parent, according to ID Analytics, which sells identity fraud protection. It is a crime of opportunity, with the culprits having total access to their children's unused Social Security numbers and the victims unaware they are victims at all. The concern over child identity theft comes as Americans have a greater need for clean sources of credit. Last April, 25 percent of Americans had credit scores of less than 600 -- the least-creditworthy category -- compared to 15 percent before the recession began, according to data compiled by Deutsche Bank. Therefore, the temptation to hijack a child's pristine credit may be greater than ever.