- Imagine suddenly realizing that your bank account
is empty, your credit card is destroyed,
and someone else has been out there in the world
pretending to be you.
This has been a reality for over 33% of the population
of the United States alone.
Having your identity stolen can be one of the most
unnerving experiences that you'll ever face.
But sometimes that experience comes with some extra fear.
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Here are the 10 creepiest cases of identity theft.
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Number 10 is Axton Betz-Hamilton.
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Axton Betz-Hamilton first discovered she was a victim
of identity theft when, at 19 years old,
she was asked for a deposit for utilities
due to her bad credit.
Since her parents had both had their identities stolen
in 1993, she suspected that hers had been taken as well.
The sinister truth was discovered in 2013
when Axton's mother lost her battle with cancer.
While cleaning out an old building on their farm,
Axton's father made a puzzling discovery.
Hidden inside an old container were 12-year-old credit card
statements bearing his daughter's name,
but the card had been issued to his wife.
As the pair continued to dig,
they discovered more than 20 years of fraud,
implicating multiple members of the family
for thousands of dollars, all perpetrated by Axton's
own mother, a woman she clearly, truly didn't know at all.
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Number nine is Carolyn Owlett.
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As a model, pop star and producer,
Carolyn Owlett was used to having admirers.
But when a stranger messaged her,
insisting that they were madly in love
after a 17-month-long internet affair,
she was truly shocked.
The man, Regis Remakle from Belgium,
began to stalk Carolyn, but when confronted,
he was genuinely convinced of his story
and even had pictures she had allegedly sent him
from her private Facebook account.
In reality, Regis had been speaking
to a 21-year-old Belgium woman name Krista Erbakella,
who had created a fake account posing as Carolyn.
Krista hacked photos from Carolyn's real account
and edited others she found online to send to Regis.
Krista even went as far as tricking Carolyn's band mates
into accepting the account and posting pictures
of Carolyn's son on the page to legitimize it.
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Number eight is Wendy Brown.
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When Wendy Brown's 15-year-old daughter, Jamie,
moved from Wisconsin to Nevada to live with her grandmother,
Wendy saw it as a chance to finally finish high school,
but not as herself, but as her daughter.
Using Jamie's identity,
she enrolled at the Ashwaubenon High School.
Though she looked older than the other students,
she mimicked their demeanor and avoided suspicion.
Wendy joined a cheerleading squad,
and even attended a pool party at the coach's house.
But when Jamie stopped attending classes,
a truancy officer contacted the school
the real Jamie was attending and discovered
she had never actually returned home.
Wendy was discovered to be in jail
for an unrelated fraud case and after being diagnosed
with several mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder,
she was committed to a mental health institution.
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Number seven is Helen Anderson.
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Helen Anderson, a retired nurse, had an ordinary life
when she left to visit her ill daughter,
but she returned to a nightmare.
Samantha, Helen's niece, was left to house sit alone,
but when Helen came home, Samantha's friend,
Alice Lipsky, was there.
Naturally, Helen asked the friend to leave,
however, Alice was an expert identity thief
and by using stolen mail and receipts,
she reopened all of Helen's closed accounts
and credit cards.
She then signed Helen up for a credit monitoring service
and changed all of her passwords,
effectively locking Helen out of all the past
and current accounts.
By the time Alice was ultimately caught,
she'd made it easier to prove she was Helen
than it was for the real Helen to prove her own identity,
creating a huge mess for the poor retired woman.
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Number six is Brittany Ossenfort.
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When Brittany moved in with her new roommate,
a transgendered woman named Michelle,
whom she met through a mutual friend,
everything seemed fine at first.
Even as Michelle started dressing like Brittany,
dying and styling her hair the same
and got a matching hand tattoo,
the two girls remained close friends.
A year later, Brittany received a phone call
requesting that she come bail herself out of jail.
Michelle had stolen Brittany's identity
and had given it to police when she was arrested
for prostitution.
Luckily, Michelle's fingerprints were in the system
from back when she was known as Richard Phillips.
In court, even with forensic evidence against her,
Michelle maintained her claim that she was Brittany,
saying she had no idea why her prints
would be a match to Richard's.
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Number five is Elaine Parent.
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In 1990, the Chameleon Killer, Elaine Parent,
struck for the first time, taking the life of her roommate,
34-year-old Beverly McGowen, and taking her identity.
This began a 12-year-long manhunt across multiple countries,
with Parent evading authorities at every turn.
Throughout this ordeal, Parent became known
as America's most-wanted woman as she seduced single women,
tricked them into giving their Social insurance numbers
to her, as well as credit cards, before ending them
and assuming their identities.
When she wasn't using information from real victims,
she would search through cemeteries for people's names
and birthdates that she could use.
In 2002, Parent was finally tracked down in Florida.
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Number four is Sarah Allman.
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When flames tore apart Stevie Allman's home
in Oakland, California, firefighters arrived on the scene
to find neighbors pulling the 52-year-old homeowner
from the blaze.
Stevie, a known anti-drug crusader, claimed the arson
was the revenge of local drug dealers.
She became an icon, the community helped pay
for her medical bills, and the state governor
offered a reward for the arrest of the arsonists.
Then it was discovered that Sara, Stevie's younger sister,
who also lived in the home, had vanished without a trace.
As the police investigated, they found that Sara
had stolen from Stevie multiple times and had even forged
Stevie's signature to cash an inheritance check.
It turns out that Stevie was actually Sara
and admitted to ending her sister to take her identity,
hiding the evidence in the fire that she caused.
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Number three is Gerald Barnbaum.
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After losing his pharmaceutical license
for committing Medicaid fraud in Chicago in 1971,
Gerald decided to turn to identity theft
to become a doctor.
Over the next 25 years, Gerald stole multiple identities
of established physicians and legally practiced medicine,
both in his community and abroad on medical missions.
He contributed to the death of undiagnosed Type-1 diabetic,
John McKensey, by giving him the wrong medication
and was sent to prison.
Upon release, he returned to stealing identities
and illegally practice medicine.
At one point, Gerald managed to act as a physician
to several FBI agents, as well as Federal Reserve
bank officials without being discovered.
He was caught again in 2000 after escaping
and passed away in prison in 2018,
one year before he was expected to be released on parole.
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Number two is Nicole McCabe.
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When Australian-born Nicole McCabe was six months pregnant
and living in Israel, she was stunned when she heard
on the radio that she was wanted for a crime.
Nicole and two other Australian citizens were three
of the 26 people implicated for a serious crime
that was committed by a man from Dubai.
Following this, Nicole and the other victims
were placed on INTERPOL's most-wanted list.
Nicole approached the Australian Embassy in Israel,
but received minimal help.
The most concerning part of the story, however,
is that she never lost her physical passport.
They were able to steal her information
from an online government database and make a fake passport
that was convincing enough to make her the prime suspect
of the crime.
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And number one is Frederic Bourdin.
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Potentially one of the most notorious serial impostors
to ever live, Frederic also earned himself the nickname
of The Chameleon for stealing the identities
of around 500 people across the world
throughout his lifetime,
including those of several missing teenagers.
In 1997, he learned about Nicholas Barclay
who disappeared from San Antonio, Texas.
Frederick decided to fly to Texas from his home in France
and convince Nicholas's parents
that he was their missing son.
His story was that his eye color was changed
by French abductors who were also responsible
for his accent.
Nicholas's parents believed him and he went on to live
with them for several months before a private investigator
exposed him due to his ears
being a different shape than Nicholas's.
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