Friday, November 7, 2014

Identity Theft True Story

 Identity Theft True Story
by Traciy Curry-Reyes

The real story took place in 1998 in California when Michelle Brown's name and social security number were stolen from a rental application by Heddi Ille. Turns out Heddi knew the owner of the rental company, and she was somehow able to obtain the application. She used Michelle Brown's info off of the application to get a driver's license which she used to drive and  to travel extensively. She also used Michelle Brown's identity to buy property and to buy a vehicle worth $32,000 which she failed to pay. Ille took out a home phone in her name and did not pay the bill. When she was arrested for trying to smuggle illegal drugs she used Michelle Brown's name. Michelle had a hard time clearing her own name for quite some time. She suffered tremendously because of it. She had to explain that she was not THAT Michelle Brown everywhere she went. She just was not able to understand who could possibly do something like this to her. She knew that her family and friends would not be capable of such a crime. It was her landlord who helped her figure out who it could be. He knew a woman named Heddi Ille who had a history of committing fraud. The police investigated the case and deduced that it was really a woman named Heddi Ille. Ille was caught and prosecuted for stolen property, but not for identity theft. Michelle Brown continued to work to have some sort of legislation passed so that people are arrested and prosecuted for identity theft and not just for stolen property. That bill was finally passed and is now a law. Even while incarcerated in a federal prison, Michelle was caught sending and receiving mail in Michelle Brown's name, until the real Michelle Brown put a stop to it. Today, Michelle Brown lives life as carefully as possible. She does everything she can to make sure that her identity cannot be stolen again.

Extra Tidbits

The real Michelle Brown lived her life totally different than Heddi Ille. First of all they looked nothing alike. Michelle Brown paid everything on time, had a very good job working as a credit anaylist, and lived in a very nice neighborhood. She was responsible and had never had a run in with the law. Heddi Ille, on the other hand had several run ins with the law, and she was known to commit fraud. Also, she very rarely paid anything on time.

It took the real Michelle Brown about a year to figure out what was going on

Heddi Ille assumed about $50,000 worth of debt in Michelle's name.
Heddi was known to be involved in drug trafficking.
Heddi was released from federal prison in 2004

I have seen a photo of Heddi Ille. I cannot be sure, but it looks like she has changed her last name and hair color again.

There are a few really good books that can give you more info about identity theft. The problem of identity theft in this country is huge. A person's identity is stolen about every 60 seconds in the U.S targeting hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.

I have listed some other cases below.

10 comments:

  1. Your story inspires me. I actully let people know about Identity Theft Shield, the only full service indentity restoration provider available. They are different because they restore your ID for you! They work with Kroll, the leader in ID theft. They would give you a monthly email with ALL account activity, monitor every minute paperwork dealing with your name, and restore your ID for you. Look at www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/katinaanthony for information.

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  2. I believe that Michelle should be able to start over with a new san and driver license number. Let Heddi take the hit. If Heddi really wants to be Michelle then she can assume her without benefits. All victims of id theft should be afforded a fresh start, and be responsible for their own debt not the debt of others.

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  3. Quote:
    Even while incarcerated in a federal prison, Michelle was caught sending and receiving mail in Michelle Brown's name, until the real Michelle Brown put a stop to it.
    ---
    Don't you mean that Heddi was caught?

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  4. I can only imagine Michelle’s reaction when she found out that she was a victim of identity theft. But I must say, something good came out of this incident, as the result opened the eyes of authorities and legislators on the consequences of identity theft. Michelle’s case is just a speck on this huge issue. And this can happen in large-scale. I do hope that the legislation will push through so people will have a law to protect them against this fraudulent act. [Annie Valdez]

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Theft became a very broad crime and it takes many form today and one of this is Identity theft. If I'm Michelle Brown I rather have my self prove innocent because its a serious matter. A $50,000 debt in your name is not a joke and use your identity for a criminal case. A crime like Identity theft should have the best criminal defense or else they will be on jail.

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  7. OK first off I don't know who your ex was but from reading your comment it sounds like you got screwed and are bitter over it understandable. But to sit there and basically say all American women are worthless it's not just stupid it's ensain some of them do know how to cook clean don't cheat and do want kids not all of them are like how you described them. Yes there are some that are though ones tend to be more evolved with them selves so of corse there going to get fat not want kids ect ect that does not make all American women bad. some allso want a careers. So you figure out which ones want to have a family and ones that dont. But to say we're enfeior is not just horrible it's disgusting we are not enferior.

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  8. Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful to me! I will post a link to this page on my blog.
    Identity Theft

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  9. Your blog is very useful, I am truly to this blog which is specially design about the Identity Theft.
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