When Axton Betz-Hamilton set up her first utility bill at college, she soon realized something was very, very wrong.
It turned out she’d been a victim of identity theft—and it had destroyed her credit rating.
In 2001, when she was a 19-year-old student, Betz-Hamilton’s new utility provider demanded a $100 security deposit to turn on her service, citing her credit score.
“I thought it was because I didn’t have enough credit,” she told Fortune. But when a copy of her credit report turned up in her mailbox six weeks later, she learned the opposite was true.
20 years ago I worked as a bill collector. The company I worked for would buy out the accounts that the primary company felt they couldn’t collect on and have basically given up. So we’d buy your debt (at a steep discount) and then try to collect from you.
It disappointed me the number of parents I talked to who not only committed fraud on their own kids but legit did not care, zero remorse. Some of them would even laugh at me and say “well they’re only three so what are you going to do!?”.
I felt so bad for the kids. Those are the kids that are entering college and the workforce right now.