I was driving from Ontario to Temecula this afternoon and was listening
to KFI. The guest on the program was a woman who lives in California,
whose identify was stolen. Her SS number was used by 80 plus people
and she received a tax bill. She wasn't working since she had taken time
off working to be with her new born. Apparently, this woman, tried
contacting both the Social Security folks as well as the IRS and received
absolutely no help. This woman, whose grandmother speaks Spanish, then
proceeded to talk with ALL of the 80 plus folks who used her SS number.
She has 270 plus w2's. She tried to get a new SS number and "they" told
her the only way she could do this was to go into the witness protection
program--change her name, and lose all of her own paid in SS $. She decided not to do this. She even found a police person, in Texas, I believe
to try to press charges against one of the folks--and even met with
the thief's employer. The prosecutor elected not to try the case. It wasn't until she started making a media event of this, that she finally received
a visit from a SS person and will now receive a new SS number (which
will be "tied" to her old SS number, for live.

If anyone sees a write up of the above, please post it here.

I made this trip from Temecula to Ontario last year and it took 45 min.
Today it took an hour and a half. (Must be the 80,000 folks that moved
into Riverside county in the last year--according to the papers.) I suspect these are mostly illegals since another article said more Caucasians are moving out of CA than moving in. I can only say, that
by looking at the drivers on the 15 freeway, my informal profiling is
that about 50% plus of the drivers were hispanic.

So, since I was stuck in traffic, I got to thinking. Why couldn't this
woman, file a charge, in small claims court, against each employer
listed on the W2's that she has--claiming time/material and damages
for their hiring their illegal who used her SS number. It seems like if
more victims of identity theft did this, in court, against employers, that
more employers might start obeying the law. In the meantime,
it seems, she could make herself over $100k per year--with a few expenses--like plane tickets to the appropriate court. Could a lawyer
please advise?