Thread: Illegals from Koch Foods steal couple's identities

Newport pair among many struggling to set record straight after ID theft

By Marti Davis (Contact)
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Jamey and Lora Costner, from left, had their identities stolen by a man and woman who used the Newport couple’s names and Social Security numbers to obtain employment and receive medical care, among other things.

Amy Smotherman-Burgess

Jamey and Lora Costner, from left, had their identities stolen by a man and woman who used the Newport couple’s names and Social Security numbers to obtain employment and receive medical care, among other things.
Related links

* Consumers Union provides a guide to freezing your credit rating using Tennessee's new security freeze law, aimed at helping victims of identity theft
* The Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. government's consumer protection agency, provides an online complaint input form
* Identity Theft Resource Center is a not for profit group that provides a large amount of online information on the crime and offers free assistance to victims
* Tennessee's identity theft laws are compiled on the Identity Theft Resource Center

Get a free annual credit report

* Request your report online
* Request your report by phone: Call 1-877-322-8228 (You will go through a simple verification process over the phone)

Secure your identity

* Don't give out personal information by phone or Internet unless you initiated the contact.
* Use those big blue U.S. Postal Service mailboxes to send out mail. The flag on your home box is a draw for thieves.
* Check your credit report. The three major credit reporting agencies must each provide a free, annual copy of your report upon request. Unauthorized loans, credit cards and the like, applied for by using your name and/or Social Security number, will be revealed.
* Protect your Social Security number. Most employers, schools and insurance companies have stopped using it as an ID number, which it was never meant to be. It's no longer printed on Tennessee driver's licenses, but it still appears on some older ones. Remove it from your checks, and don't carry the card in your billfold.
* Get a shredder. Use it for old credit card statements, bills and other documents with personal information.
* Revise PINs and passwords, avoiding birthdays and family names. A combination of letters, symbols and numbers works best.

If you suspect your personal information has been compromised:
* Check your credit report. Freeze your credit report for up to six months. You can unfreeze it temporarily to get credit.
* Request a copy of your Social Security work-history earnings benefits statement, which reveals all your past employers.

If you're a victim:
* Freeze your credit report to stop any new accounts from being opened with your name or Social Security number.
* Report the crime to police.
* Obtain multiple copies of the police report; you'll need them.


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"I didn't do it" is the worn-out refrain of many a lawbreaker, but Jamey and Lora Costner of Newport, Tenn., are in fact innocent of acts committed in their names by two imposters.

Morristown police arrested and detained the culprits, at least one of whom is an illegal immigrant. The pair spent at least three years working and living as the Costners, according to Internal Revenue Service records.

The Costners feel trapped by a growing trail of tax debts and records, leading a false trail to their door.

"We're so outraged and sickened we don't know what to do," said Lora Costner, 34, tearfully adding that they just received a summons from the IRS. It orders them to appear at tax court in June or pay $8,000 in fines and taxes. A stack of evidence compiled by Lora Costner that clears them hasn't seemed to help much.

Millions of victims

Ten million U.S. citizens are victims of identity theft each year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. ID theft often involves credit card charges, bank withdrawals or new accounts. FTC data shows Social Security numbers are often the key that opens access to a world of benefits, jobs and more.

Illegal immigrants often seek valid U.S. Social Security numbers because they're required by employers, said Richard Rocha, spokesman of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

An East Tennessee identity-theft task force recently was convened by the U.S. Attorney's office in Knoxville, part of a national response called for by President Bush.

The Secret Service, FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are involved, as are the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and city and county police, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle. Members haven't had time to compile data, he added. Task force member Wendy Boles, a U.S. postal inspector, said the 50 cases she has worked would have been discovered sooner if victims had simply asked to see their credit reports.

Federal law requires that the nation's three major credit reporting agencies provide one free credit report per year, but an individual must make the request.

New federal laws make it relatively easy to clear credit fraud from most victims' records, said Sheila Gordon of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a California-based not-for-profit group.

Rocha said no Tennessee data are available about identity-theft victims whose Social Security numbers have been compromised.

A mystery speeding ticket,

a workers' comp claim

Tax records show the Costners' doubles used their identities at Koch Foods in Morristown beginning in 2005, but the couple knew nothing about that until April 2006, when a state form letter warned Jamey Costner, 32, his license was about to be revoked for an unpaid speeding ticket.

The Costners hired a lawyer to clear the speeding ticket and prevent a spike in their auto insurance rates. They thought the case was closed. Their next shock came almost a year later, in February 2007, when Lora Costner applied for workers' compensation.

"The Tennessee Department of Labor said I shouldn't be receiving benefits because I'd returned to work after filing a claim for another injury in January '07," Lora Costner said.

Using Costner's maiden name - Lora Hale - and Social Security number, a worker at Koch Foods' chicken processing plant in Morristown had filed a claim after falling from the chicken line, Costner learned from the state.

Lora Costner immediately called Koch Foods but said she got no relief.

"The personnel manager told me he had no way to know if I was who I said I was."

Koch Foods in Chattanooga and Morristown referred calls to the company's Chicago headquarters, which did not reply to requests for comment.

Charges and a loophole

Costner called the Morristown police, who arrested Elizabeth Velasco Bautista, 32, at Koch Foods in February 2007. Morristown Detective Bobby Ellis charged Bautista with criminal impersonation. She is an illegal immigrant, said Morristown Police Chief Roger Overholt, although he did not know her country of origin.

Douglas Valdez, 20, who authorities said used Jamey Costner's personal information, also was found and charged with identity theft.

Overholt said officials weren't sure whether he was legally in the country. With the suspects' arrests, the Costners learned something else about identity theft: Like one in five victims, theirs involved a family member.

Lora Costner said her estranged sister was living with Valdez when he began using Jamey Costner's identity. She believes Valdez got their names and numbers from adoption papers.

"The worst part of this is we were trying to do the right thing. We're adopting my sister's daughter," she said.

Lora Costner doesn't know for sure how Bautista got her name and number but believes it came from the same adoption papers.

Rocha said he couldn't trace the Bautista and Valdez cases without their "alien numbers" and wouldn't allow the News Sentinel to speak with the local agent who worked the case.

More letters in the mail

Bautista pleaded guilty and served jail time. Her whereabouts today are unclear.

A loophole in the law forced the court to cancel Valdez's charges, Ellis explained in a letter to the IRS. Under state law, "it was not a crime to use the information (Jamey Costner's name and Social Security number) to obtain and/or keep a job," the detective wrote.

In December 2007, IRS attorneys acknowledged the Costners were victims of identity theft.

Then, another IRS letter arrived Jan. 17, summoning the couple to tax court.

"This is all more painful than I can explain," Lora Costner said, weeping.

"I've just about given up ever getting this straightened out," she said, adding the IRS has told them to expect separate bills for 2006 and 2007 taxes owed by Bautista and Valdez.

U.S. Rep. David Davis, who has helped the Costners with the IRS, is losing patience.

"Hopefully the IRS will go after those that have broken the law instead of law-abiding American citizens," the congressman said after hearing from the couple and vowing to try to help again.

Though some victims of identity theft eventually seek new Social Security numbers, new names or both, the Costners haven't yet considered that option.

It could pose its own problem, warned Gordon of the ID Theft Resource Center.

"You lose your history," she said, explaining every school, employer, bank and medical provider, past and present, must be contacted and informed of the changes.

The Costners have hired one of many businesses that are springing up to offer identity protection and security. The FTC recently issued a statement urging caution to would-be clients of such agencies.

Meanwhile, the couple have learned of another track Bautista left on Lora Costner's name.

A billing clerk for a Morristown doctor suspected Bautista's identity theft in May 2006, when she signed doctor's forms as Lora Hale, using Costner's Social Security number.

Bautista used her own name when she checked in at the hospital, however, and said she had no Social Security number.

The doctor's clerk faxed the conflicting forms to Koch Foods. "She assumed they would take care of it," Costner said, but Bautista was still working for Koch Foods when she was arrested nine months later.

To the Costners, the ordeal seems to have no end.

"We had a good, happy, solid life," Lora Costner said. "That is what we want back - just to be who we are."

Marti Davis may be reached at 865-342-6305.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/feb/0 ... o-reclaim/

Though some victims of identity theft eventually seek new Social Security numbers, new names or both, the Costners haven't yet considered that option.


It could pose its own problem, warned Gordon of the ID Theft Resource Center.

"You lose your history," she said, explaining every school, employer, bank and medical provider, past and present, must be contacted and informed of the changes






I'm puzzled by this. In dealing with my husband's own case of identity theft we discovered that one cannot change their social security number any longer.

According to the SSA that practice was ended years ago.....even for victims of identity theft and other crimes......for several reasons, one of which was to help prevent establishment and use of multiple identities by those who might be so inclined.

AZWreath....I was told the same thing by Social Security when my identity was stolen, too! It took about 3 years to straighten out the mess created by the illegal alien who stole my identity. When my credit was finally restored, I put a credit watch on my accounts and my
SSN was also flagged. You never feel quite the same again...but I can only hope it will never happen again! I am so thankful that I was able to restore my credit history....what can we do without it.....not much!

You seem so terribly confused (or misinformed) about U.S. Rep. David Davis' pro-illegal immigration stance...

"U.S. Rep. Davis reflects on first year in office, discusses immigration, war on terror"
The Mountain Press
By: DEREK HODGES November 27, 2007
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 9689&rfi=6
...
Immigration
Like many lawmakers in Washington, [U.S. Rep. David] Davis has made comprehensive immigration reform a cornerstone of his first year in office. The issue has become a hot-button nationwide and will likely play a major role in the 2008 elections.

Davis said he favors providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country rather than deporting them.

"Most people in East Tennessee will welcome people with open arms if they come here legally," Davis said. "Illegal is illegal, though. I don't think the answer is deporting 12 million people, though."

I suppose Mr. Davis spins his stance toward illegal immigration dependent upon what end of the Tennessee First Congressional District that he happens to find himself being led around by his handlers...you should also keep in mind that as a Tennnessee State Representative member of the House Transportation Committee, Davis voted "aye" twice on April 11, 2001 for H.B.0983 requiring that the Tennessee Department of Safety to issue drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants!

I don't know how the IRS, after admitting the Costners are victims of identity theft, can still expect them to pay the tax bills of the crminals who stole their identities? Can they actually get away with this?

"I don't know how the IRS, after admitting the Costners are victims of identity theft, can still expect them to pay the tax bills of the crminals who stole their identities? Can they actually get away with this?"

I don't know if they can, but I feel sure that they don't give a hoot, they just want the money and do not care about right or wrong!!!