Identity Theft/Fraud

After six years on the run, a Mexican man who lived in Nashville when he allegedly defrauded the U.S. government has been captured by authorities. In 2015, Claudio Juarez and 46 others were charged with conspiracy to file false income tax returns against the United...

Fraudsters have good questions as did Ian Hosang, May 8, 2020, after he was arrested and arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court for grand larceny, identity theft and scheming to defraud the IRS, by establishing fake non-profits with legitimate-sounding names, like “American Cancer Society for...

According to the Pandemic-Related Identity Fraud Crime Victim Impacts Report, the past two years have brought about an unprecedented surge of government benefits-related identity fraud. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a nationally recognized nonprofit organization established to support victims of identity crime, and...

Diomedes Ramirez Rodriguez, a Dominican National, is facing possible deportation after being convicted of several charges in federal court. He falsely represented his citizenship and social security number, misused a passport, and committed health care fraud. (One illegal activity just wasn’t enough I suppose)....

Sean Okrzesik, 34, of Syracuse, N.Y., was sentenced to 25 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft and theft of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. SSI is funded by general tax revenue and helps the elderly and disabled,...

The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book reveals that 29.4 percent of complaints filed with the online database in 2020 were related to identity theft. (That’s more than any other type of fraud reported.) Amongst the many types of identity theft fraud...

What’s worse than standing in line at the DMV? Getting arrested at one. A Dominican national has been sentenced for using the identity of a U.S. citizen at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. (I’m sure that will qualify as his most memorable trip...

Fraud occurs just about everywhere in the U.S., from sea to shining sea. In today’s case, we take a look at a COVID-19 and identity theft fraud scheme that began on the West Coast in Seattle, Wash., but ended June 2021 on the East...

In the Star Wars movie series, Death Star and Death Star II were the Galactic Empire's ultimate terror weapons that could destroy an entire planet. Similarly, Justin Sean Johnson a.k.a. TheDearthStar and Dearthy Star, hacked the human resources databases of the University of Pittsburgh...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. In 2020, the Insurance Information Institute noted that approximately 1,660 Puerto Ricans alone had their identity stolen. (In one year, mind you.) One of those...