Thread: The secret list of ID theft victims

Consumers could be warned, but U.S government isn't talking

By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 12:22 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2005

Linda Trevino, who lives in a Chicago suburb, applied for a job last year at a local Target department store, and was denied. The reason? She already worked there -- or rather, her Social Security number already worked there.

Follow-up investigation revealed the same Social Security number had been used to obtain work at 37 other employers, mostly by illegal immigrants trying to satisfy government requirements to get a job.

Trevino is hardly alone. MSNBC.com research and government reports suggest hundreds of thousands of American citizens are in the same spot -- unknowingly lending their identity to illegal immigrants so they can work. And while several government agencies and private corporations sometimes know whose Social Security numbers are being ripped off, they won't notify the victims. That is, until they come after the victims for back taxes or unpaid loans owed by the imposter.
[b]
It's a thorny problem that cuts to the heart of America's undocumented worker issue. Immigration opponents say it's another reason to shut the borders tight; immigrant rights groups point out that identity theft is an inevitable outcome of unfair labor laws that push foreign visitors deeper into the shadows.

‘People need to wake up to this problem. They are destroying people’s credit, Social Security benefits, and everything else.’[b]

â€â€

Consumers could be warned, but U.S government isn't talking

By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 12:22 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2005

Linda Trevino, who lives in a Chicago suburb, applied for a job last year at a local Target department store, and was denied. The reason? She already worked there -- or rather, her Social Security number already worked there.

Follow-up investigation revealed the same Social Security number had been used to obtain work at 37 other employers, mostly by illegal immigrants trying to satisfy government requirements to get a job.

Trevino is hardly alone. MSNBC.com research and government reports suggest hundreds of thousands of American citizens are in the same spot -- unknowingly lending their identity to illegal immigrants so they can work. And while several government agencies and private corporations sometimes know whose Social Security numbers are being ripped off, they won't notify the victims. That is, until they come after the victims for back taxes or unpaid loans owed by the imposter.
[b]
It's a thorny problem that cuts to the heart of America's undocumented worker issue. Immigration opponents say it's another reason to shut the borders tight; immigrant rights groups point out that identity theft is an inevitable outcome of unfair labor laws that push foreign visitors deeper into the shadows.

‘People need to wake up to this problem. They are destroying people’s credit, Social Security benefits, and everything else.’[b]

â€â€

These days even seeing a report like this makes me suspicious... thinking its gotta be in preparation for arguments to give illegals their own social security number or other ID. I'm so tired of living in times like this where you never know what is coming from those freegin anti-border ninnies and what isn't. Wish we could just banish them all to Mexico. Isn't it easier anyway if they go to Mexico than to bring Mexico here?

These days even seeing a report like this makes me suspicious... thinking its gotta be in preparation for arguments to give illegals their own social security number or other ID. I'm so tired of living in times like this where you never know what is coming from those freegin anti-border ninnies and what isn't. Wish we could just banish them all to Mexico. Isn't it easier anyway if they go to Mexico than to bring Mexico here?