Parents are stealing their children's identities to access debt—and destroying their kids' credit scores in the process

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.