One in five children under 16 steals money from
their parents by buying goods online with parents' credit cards. This deeply depressing finding comes from a
study in which a market researcher interviewed 500 children and 500 adults. Like many similar studies, it would be most
interesting to know where the researchers found the 500 children, including the
100 little sods stealing from their parents - a juvenile detention centre
perhaps? Family therapy sessions? An identity fraud expert was shocked at the
discovery, saying, "We knew online and card-not-present fraud was on the rise,
but we had no idea of the extent of teens' involvement." Downtime wonders how many other studies the
card protection specialist behind the research will be commissioning into areas
of identity fraud that it does not think pose a problem. For example, Downtime has always assumed
that dogs have no involvement in fraud, but following these findings, might it
be worth interviewing 500 dogs and 500 dog owners.
