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CNN: victim had identity stolen over 200 times
Posted on Jun 16, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Lou Dobbs did a story on Audra Schmierer, who had her Social Security benefits from 14 years of work wiped out, owes $1 million in back taxes, and was detained by customs. All because her social security number was sold to illegal immigrants and used to gain employment across the country—over 200 times. Excepts from CNN.com - Transcripts (scroll down on this site to find).
DOBBS: Tonight, our nation's elected officials are ignoring a widening identity theft crisis that threatens all U.S. citizens. Illegal aliens are stealing the identities of American citizens so they can remain and work in this country illegally. One northern California woman says her identity was stolen more than 200 times by illegal aliens. Casey Wian has her story.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Audra Schmierer has been a stay-at-home mom for six years. Now that her son is in school, she wants to return to work. So she applied to a temp agency.
AUDRA SCHMIERER, ID THEFT VICTIM: They called me three or for hours later and said, "Mrs. Schmierer, I don't understand why you're applying. You already work here."
WIAN: At a big tech company, a similar experience.
SCHMIERER: There's my driver's license, my passport, my Social Security card. I gave them everything. And she said, "Well, really, how can you actually prove you are you? What if those people have the same documentation you do?"
WIAN: Schmierer has discovered more than 200 illegal aliens throughout the United States are doing jobs Americans supposedly won't do by using her Social Security number. They work in fast-food chains, cosmetic companies, even receive dividends from Microsoft.
Read more: CNN.com.
Filed under: Identity Theft
Comments
Allan Jayne on Jan 15, 2007
Q: Who is at fault?
A: The U.S. federal government.
The Feds could and could have:
1. Ordered that all of the employers who hired the 200 odd impersonators start withholding "adequate" taxes from all of the respective paychecks with the "victim's" social, under penalty of the employer's being held liable for the tax.
2. Held back tax refunds to all of the impersonators. Nobody would get social security credits for work done and FICA tax paid under somebody else's social; the victim would only get credit for his/her own work.
3. Waived the 1 million or so tax liability allegedly owed by the "victim".
4. Given the "victim" a new social security number.
5. Reconstructed the employment and social security history for the "victim" by allowing him to pick out what employment was his from a list of all.
6. Investigate behind the scenes whether the "victim's" reconstructed data does not make sense for example the high school yearbook does not have a correct photograph or could not identify the hospital where his child was born.
7. Prosecute any continued obvious impersonation including re-instating any fines or taxes owed.
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