http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... 47,00.html

ID theft victims relieved
Texan happy the woman using her name arrested
STORY TOOLS


By Laressa Bachelor, Rocky Mountain News
December 14, 2006
When Vanessa Caraveo went to pick up her medication two months ago at a Walgreens store in El Paso, Texas, she found herself on the tail end of an interrogation.
By the pharmacist.

"She asked me if I was from Greeley, Colo.," Caraveo recalled. "It seems someone was using my name to get medication."

Caraveo has never lived in Colorado.

The encounter at the drugstore confirmed for the 29-year-old Texas sales clerk what she'd feared for a decade - that someone was using her name and private information.

Caraveo first realized she was the victim of identity theft 10 years ago when the Internal Revenue Service notified her that she owed taxes on earnings she knew nothing about.

This week, Caraveo learned that she is one of many victims across the country who may have fallen prey to a criminal enterprise.

Investigators say their names - in many cases, the essence of who they are - were bought and sold on an underground market, given to illegal immigrants who needed papers to find employment.

On Wednesday, as families and friends of workers taken into custody during a massive raid at Swift & Co. condemned the government's actions, Caraveo said those critics don't understand the torment she and other identity theft victims have had to endure.

She was relieved to hear that the woman using her identity was apprehended. She has told authorities she will cooperate with prosecutors.

"As a human being, I feel sorry for that person, but I feel she needs to get punished," Caraveo said. "I know that she was probably an illegal alien pursuing the American dream, but people don't realize they ruined someone's life."

As soon as Caraveo was notified by the IRS, she alerted the credit bureaus and the police - but her credit problems were just about to start.

A woman using Caraveo's name "took a $3,000 loan from a credit union, and when I went to talk to the manager, he told me he could not help me unless a police officer requested the information," she said.

More than 700 miles away, another alleged victim, Gustavo Gutierrez, also received a letter from the IRS about taxes he did not owe.

He didn't give it much thought until a week ago when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement knocked on his door in Inglewood, Calif.

Gutierrez previously served time in a Colorado prison for sex crimes against children, so when he saw the agents he thought he was in trouble with the law again.

"They told me someone was using my identity for work," Gutierrez said. "It was scary. It was not right."

Although Caraveo and Gutierrez have stayed tuned into news about Tuesday's raids, they still worry about the long-term effects of being victimized and wonder if they'll ever get their identities back.

"I feel better knowing that the person who stole my son's identity has been found, but I still don't know how this is going to affect us in the future," said Margarita Gutierrez, Gustavo's mother.

Caraveo said she believes her Social Security number and driver's license were sold after her purse was stolen in Juarez, Mexico.

"I knew it was a matter of time until someone was going to use my identity," she said.