Kansas case puts face on 'total identity theft'

[Damen]

Remember the good old days when people suffering from identity theft just had to deal with messed up social security numbers and credit cards? Yeah, we'll be missing them soon. Try and picture someone taking out a mortgage for your house and claiming to be you.

http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-case-puts-face-total-identity-theft-065454072.html

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — When Candida L. Gutierrez's identity was stolen, the thief didn't limit herself to opening fraudulent credit and bank accounts. She assumed Gutierrez's persona completely, using it to get a job, a driver's license, a mortgage and even medical care for the birth of two children.

All the while, the crook claimed the real Gutierrez was the one who had stolen her identity. The women's unusual tug-of-war puts a face on "total identity theft," a brazen form of the crime in which con artists go beyond financial fraud to assume many other aspects of another person's life.

The scheme has been linked to illegal immigrants who use stolen Social Security numbers to get paid at their jobs, and authorities fear the problem could soon grow to ensnare more unsuspecting Americans.

"When she claimed my identity and I claimed it back, she was informed that I was claiming it too," said Gutierrez, a 31-year-old Houston elementary school teacher. "She knew I was aware and that I was trying to fight, and yet she would keep fighting. It is not like she realized and she stopped. No, she kept going, and she kept going harder."

A 32-year-old illegal immigrant named Benita Cardona-Gonzalez is accused of using Gutierrez's identity during a 10-year period when she worked at a Topeka company that packages refrigerated foods.

For years, large numbers of illegal immigrants have filled out payroll forms using their real names but stolen Social Security numbers. However, as electronic employment verification systems such as E-Verify become more common, the use of fake numbers is increasingly difficult. Now prosecutors worry that more people will try to fool the systems by assuming full identities rather than stealing the numbers alone.

Prosecutors say that the longer a person uses someone else's identity, the more confident the thief becomes using that identity for purposes other than just working.

Once they have become established in a community, identity thieves don't want to live in the shadows and they seek a normal life like everybody else. That's when they take the next step and get a driver's license, a home loan and health insurance.

"And so that is a natural progression, and that is what we are seeing," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson, who is prosecuting the case against Gutierrez's alleged impostor.

Gutierrez first learned her identity had been hijacked when she was turned down for a mortgage more than a decade ago. Now each year she trudges to the Social Security Administration with her birth certificate, driver's license, passport and even school yearbooks to prove her identity and clear her employment record.

She spends hours on the phone with creditors and credit bureaus, fills out affidavits and has yet to clean up her credit history. Her tax records are a mess. She even once phoned the impostor's Kansas employer in a futile effort to find some relief.

Both women claimed they were identity theft victims and sought to get new Social Security numbers. The Social Security Administration turned down the request from Gutierrez, instead issuing a new number to the woman impersonating her. And in another ironic twist, Gutierrez was forced to file her federal income tax forms using a special identification number usually reserved for illegal immigrants.

When Gutierrez recently got married, her husband began researching identity theft on the Internet and stumbled across identity theft cases filed against other illegal immigrants working at Reser's Fine Foods, the same manufacturer where Cardona-Gonzalez worked. He contacted federal authorities in Kansas and asked them to investigate the employee working there who had stolen his wife's identity.

The alleged impostor was arrested in August, and her fingerprints confirmed that immigration agents had encountered Cardona-Gonzalez in 1996 in Harlingen, Texas, and sent her back to Mexico.

[MadCatTLX]

Them thar illegal beaners our jerbs identitys!

Who bets this will be responded to with racism out of Arizona and little else to actually solve the problem from anyone else?

[Witchyjoshy]

Them thar illegal beaners our jerbs identitys!

Who bets this will be responded to with racism out of Arizona and little else to actually solve the problem from anyone else?

I think that's a safe bet.

That being said, it's kinda sad when it's harder to use someone else's social security number than it is to steal their entire identity.

[Mechtaur]

I actually met this woman. It was pretty saddening at how much it screwed with her life.

[Sylvana]

Question: Do Americans have identity documents?
I think it would be very difficult to steal someones complete identity in South Africa without getting a fraudulent ID document, because it is used for everything and often has to be presented in person to do just about anything. Even routine bank transactions require one to present it. Now I will admit that stolen ID books and fraudulent ID books are a common problem, but complete identity theft seems almost impossible, especially to the level that this person seemed to achieve. I know how many hoops I have to jump through to get anything like insurance or loans so I am really wondering if the checks in America might be a little lax.

I am also asking this because of the whole thing about voter disenfranchisement with photo IDs. The ID documents in South Africa are all photo IDs, and all South African citizens need one to do anything. That a significant number of Americans do not seem to have documents like these that it can affect voter turnout makes me wonder why such documents are not required by all citizens.

I just find that needing a name and a social security number to do everything the imposter managed to do seems a little strange to me.

[Fpqxz]

We do need national identity documents.  But guess who opposes them?

[Askold]

We do need national identity documents.  But guess who opposes them?

Libertarians?

[Material Defender]

America kind of use Driver's Licenses as the de facto public identity documents because of not requiring a national people registry thing. I've always thought it was wierd, especially since not everyone can drive.