this episode is brought to you by - Lane
DRI - Lane premium free for 30-days at -
lang comm / infographics and never
forget another password and keep all
your online accounts secure it's
self-explanatory what identity theft is
it's when someone steals an identity
usually with the objective of using that
name to commit a criminal act that might
be traveling from country to country
under a name because the thief is wanted
by the police
opening up bank accounts with someone's
name renting properties or perhaps just
opening up social media accounts it
happens more these days only because so
much information is available online
websites can be hacked people's simple
passwords can be cracked phones can be
stolen wallets can be lost or people
might fall prey to phishing and it
happens to a lot of people the website
identity force tells us that in 2017
sixteen point seven million Americans
were at least once a victim of identity
theft today we'll look at some of the
bigger cases in this episode of the
infographic show worst identity theft
cases eleven the journalists we'll start
with a not so serious case only because
you may have seen it in a movie and it's
quite interesting the story is about an
American journalist called Michael finkl
finkl was an up-and-coming writer who
was fired from the New York Times in
2002 for partly fabricating a story as
that was going on a serial murderer
called Christian Longo who enjoyed
finkles writing was wandering around
Mexico calling himself Michael Finkel he
also told people he was a writer for the
New York Times the two eventually met
while longer was in prison their
relationship resulted in a book true
story
murder memoir maiya Koopa as we said
this isn't the worst case of identity
theft but he goes to show that if you
choose you can leave your current
surroundings and just start living as
someone else now we'll get to some
darker cases of identity theft ten don't
leave your wallet in your car one day a
mother of four in the USA got a call
from child protection services saying
she was under investigation the mother
and Ari Sachs listened to the person as
they told her she was being watched
after giving birth to a child that had
been born with methamphetamine in its
blood this came as a surprise to her as
she hadn't given birth for quite a few
years I was absolutely floored he would
just never imagined in a million years
that something could happen like this
she later said in the TV appearance what
had happened is her car had been broken
- and her wallet was stolen the person
who had stolen that wallet was a
pregnant drug addict that person had
walked into a hospital with sax stolen
driving license given birth to a child
with meth in their system and then
walked out sax was also left with a
$10,000 bill to pay and she had to clear
her name after some amount of stress she
even had to take a DNA test just to
prove that she wasn't the mother of the
child 9 over-confidence this is the
story of a man called Todd Davis the CEO
of an identity theft protection firm
Davis was perhaps overconfident when he
began an advertising campaign with his
social security number in full view he
dared people to try to do anything with
that number so people did just that and
Davis could only watch on as $500 was
taken as an advanced loan using that
number while others apparently 87 in
total used his number 8 the cheerleader
did you ever want to know what it feels
like to be young again well that's what
a 33 year old woman in the USA wanted
when she got on the high school
cheerleading team Wendy brown according
to the Atlantic enrolled in the school
in Green Bay Wisconsin in 2008 she was
15 according to her ID except she was
using one of her daughter's IDs it
worked for a while it said she attended
classes joined the school cheerleading
team and even attended a pool party for
that team she must have looked very
young as this went on for 18 days
alas she was found out I'm not a bad
person I just made a mistake she later
told the press as her trial began the
Atlantic reported that she had a
criminal past albeit containing nothing
very serious it seems she had just
wanted to be young again and get on the
cheerleading team because she had an
embattled youth she just wanted another
chance she wasn't found guilty of her
crime due to mental defects but she had
to spend some time in a mental health
facility 7 getting into school a woman
called Elizabeth Reed became a wanted
woman in the USA after using various
people's names to get into university
one of those names was of a missing
woman so that didn't go down well with
police apparently the high school
dropout left her family home and went on
a journey throughout the US using
different identities she would make up
stories about herself including being a
champion chess player but unlike many
identity thieves she didn't steal the
names to make a quick buck instead she
used those names to educate herself she
assumed the name Natalie Bauman into
and one and passed the exams to get into
California State University she became a
successful student and joined many
debating teams she didn't stop there
once becoming a student with very good
grades at Columbia University she was
eventually arrested and sentenced to 51
months in prison six the young boy who
was a woman in a similar case but a more
confounding one a woman from the Czech
Republic became a young boy for a while
barbarous krilova was 33 years old when
she became a 13 year old Czech boy a boy
that was missing at the time under that
identity she spent four months schooling
in Norway the woman had strapped back
her breasts and shaved her head and
called herself Adam how did teachers not
see this a spokesperson for the school
told the press we did react to Adams
behavior but it's not easy to know
children at that age can be so different
Adam then went missing and the
authorities started a search only when
they found him he turned out to be a
woman in her 30s that woman was then put
under psychiatric evaluation 5 becoming
yourself again it's the damnedest thing
I ever heard of
police said about the case of this
student his name was Li Ming and he was
a graduate student at West Chester
University in the USA during his studies
he spent a lot of money on his credit
card and he wasn't quite sure how he
would pay the debt off so he did what
anyone else would do and faked his own
death he even got a friend to write an
obituary and send it to the local paper
Li Ming was confident that he could then
apply for a duplicate birth certificate
and also get some more credit cards he
thought it would be okay as in China his
name is very common but then he went on
to the Department of Motor Vehicles to
apply for a new drivers license and the
person there saw that someone with the
same name and identification had
apparently died nine months earlier Li
Ming was then arrested for fraud an
unfortunate California grandmother
called Margo Summerville was under
investigation in 2007 for what police
thought was writing a bunch of
fraudulent checks in the USA and getting
away with many thousands of dollars only
the grandmother wasn't at fault she had
had her identity stolen by a woman
called Andrea Harris Frazier she had
taken Somerville's identity by stealing
some of her documents the thing was
police were certain that the grandmother
was lying she later told the press the
whole thing was really ludicrous to be
honest if I hadn't had the means to hire
it
aren't good lawyer I probably would have
sat in jail for a very long time in the
end it worked out for her and Harris
Frazier was charged with 19 felony
counts of theft and criminal
impersonation still Somerville was
jailed for a while and treated pretty
badly it seems can you imagine how
frustrating that would be
three neighbors from hell like many
cases we've already talked about this
could happen to anyone this is the story
of a couple in the USA called Laura love
and David Jackson this couple were
involved in a massive identity theft
scheme and their neighbors were their
victims they would assume the identities
of their neighbors using different
tactics it said that they would steal
mail from nearby mailboxes and also gain
information by tapping into neighbor's
Wi-Fi later people on the street noticed
they were receiving letters from banks
and other organizations that they had
not joined the couple bought stuff on
Amazon and also used money on gambling
sites which in all amounted to about
fifteen thousand dollars the neighbors
soon got together and realized something
was afoot and it was likely someone
close by that was to blame the couple
were charged with theft and also
admitted to 30 counts of possessing
others identifying information to the
busboys this is the case of a man called
Abraham Abdullah in 2001 he was arrested
after impersonating some of the world's
most famous people some of these were
Steven Spielberg Oprah Winfrey Warren
Buffett George Soros and Michael
Bloomberg using the web and also the
local Brooklyn library the 32 year old
managed to find information about these
people and then pretend to be them
according to the Guardian this clever
young man would use web enabled mobile
phones and virtual voicemail services to
track packages ordered in his victims
names and pick up messages from anywhere
in the u.s. he also tried to move their
money from Wall Street firms and also
just run up bills in all the media
reports that he stole the identity of
about 200 celebrities later an NYPD
detective said he's the best I ever
faced not bad for a busboy one the
imposter
we started with a true story turned into
a movie and we'll finish with one this
movie is called the impostor and if you
sigh you'll no doubt have had your mind
blown it's the story of a Frenchman
called Frederick Bodine a man who it
seems had been impersonating people all
his life but his piece de resistance was
when he became a missing boy called the
Nicholas Barclay Barclay
it'd gone missing in the US age 13 and
then three years later Borden turned up
on the doorstep of the family saying he
was their son he had first been
discovered in a small Spanish village
after which the family brought him home
to the US he even had a light French
accent and didn't look all that much
like the Sun while Bohr Dean was seven
years older than he should have been
still the family took him in his act was
eventually unmasked after a few months
sadly as we've seen identity theft is on
the rise and with so many ways to have
your personal information stolen it can
be overwhelming trying to protect
yourself from digital crooks that's why
- Lane has your back through their app
that lets you store all of your personal
information for fast and easy online
checkouts and because it works across
every platform there's no need to
re-enter your personal information every
time you switch devices plus - Lane will
monitor your personal accounts for you
immediately notifying you of any
suspicious activity and there darkweb
skin will look for your personal info
being bought and sold on the dark web so
you can take steps to protect yourself
don't be a victim head on over to
www.fcsexcel.com to