This is just 1 story. You could be next.


JANET LEE, a 54-year-old homemaker living in Weber County, Utah, owns one house. Imagine her shock when she was told last May that her Social Security number had been used to buy two other houses in Ohio and one in Texas that carried a second mortgage, to boot. Combined, the four mortgages totaled more than $500,000.
Then there were the nine car loans totaling more than $200,000. And 10 additional credit lines from various department stores and wireless service providers.

An investigation by the Social Security Administration in Utah, first reported by the Salt Lake City Tribune last month in connection with a mortgage fraud scam, revealed that an illegal immigrant was using Lee's Social Security number as a means to enjoy his slice of the American dream. And like most folks in this country, he was using credit to do it.

There are an estimated nine million illegal aliens living in the U.S., according to Census Bureau statistics. In order to work and obtain credit, they need Social Security numbers — something they cannot obtain legitimately because of their illegal immigrant status. But a fake number isn't hard to get. "There's a very good black market that has fostered this," says Richard Hamp, Utah Assistant Attorney General. "You can buy a Social Security card on the street for $20."

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Fake cards are produced and sold by organized crime groups, which generate Social Security numbers and sell them to illegal immigrants with their own names on the card. Right now, for example, Utah authorities are investigating a company that offers commercial and mortgage loans, health insurance and debt consolidation, which is distributing advertising that reads "If you don't have a Social Security number, you also qualify." According to Ron Ingleby, resident agent in charge of Utah, Montana and Wyoming for the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, the company allegedly supplies the immigrants with the numbers they need.

The numbers, however, often belong to real people.

The result can be a bizarre form of identity theft. Traditional theft typically involves a person stealing someone's name and identification and then racking up huge debts under that name. But with Social Security-number (SSN)-only theft, oftentimes abusers have no intent of stealing anybody's good credit. They simply want the number so they can work and establish their own lines of credit — in their own name. In essence, two separate identities are created from one Social Security number.

Even in Lee's case, where there were a suspiciously large number of loans, the perpetrator had kept current on most of his payments, although Lee says he's under criminal investigation for other activities. (To protect Lee's privacy, we are not using her real name.)

How widespread is this type of identity theft? While there are no official statistics, Ingleby estimates that there are thousands of cases of SSN-only theft in Utah alone. "There are many, many more throughout the country," he says. "They get the counterfeit cards and start working, and when no one bothers with them, they start obtaining credit."

Unfortunately, stopping perpetrators is difficult. Lee estimates she spent hundreds of hours filing reports with more than 50 government agencies, including all local police precincts where the immigrant had been obtaining credit, the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

The biggest challenge, says Lee, has been working to clean up her credit. Why? Because of the way credit is reported by the credit bureaus, lenders can see when there are two identities attached to one Social Security number. But individuals can't. When Lee pulled her own credit reports from the three credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax), everything looked fine. None of the illegal loans were listed there. "You could have someone using your Social Security number and not know it," she

Spur...useful advice you share there...we get a lot of that C**p over here too

Not every immigrant steals IDs. Many of then are hardworking, decent people that just want a better life. Just like in any group of people there are going to be some bad apples. There are plenty of american born criminals out there.

saturnswirls,

That's true, not every immigrant is a criminal, but all illegal immigrants are criminals. They are breaking the law just being in the US.

I understand what you are saying. I agree. I'm not saying that I support the policies that force people to be criminals and come into this country illegally. I understand why they are in place though.

My comment was really more geared towards Spurs obvious disdain for immigrants. This is not the first topic I've seen of his on the subject of immigrants. At some point everyone has been an immigrant in the country. Only "real" Americans are the Native Americans. We all got here somehow and it wasn't always nice and legal.

Good point you guys...I will be an immagrant myself soon, totally legal and have no wish what so ever to start ripping my new Country or her Citizans off...I will be contributing 100%. Yes I thinks its the Illegals that cause the problems, it would make sense infact, how else could they survive without a job or any other form of income that would put the spot light on them...Spotlights are the last thing they need.

Ms saturnswirls,
You are absolutely right. Legal immigrants did what it took to get here the legal way.
Unlawful immigration means just that. Against the law.
If you or I broke a law we wouldn't be given amnesty, we'd be held accountable.

Let's say, for just an example. You work hard for what you have. One day, you are at work and someone looks peeks through your window and sees all the neat stuff you have. They then break in and steal everything, leaving you just the dust on the floor. Would you want them apprehended and prosecuted? Or, would you hold to your guns and say, "That's ok, they were intitled to those things."

Think we should use Mexico's immagration laws.
Do unto others, as they would do to you.

Spur...would I hell say it ok...oddly you should say that, as I was moving in to my home here in the UK Immegrants were helping themselves to my furniture....I called the Police, they were charged and all my things returned...

The biggest scam going over here is people going through your trash...they only need 3 details of yours to build a profile and take your ID...

I'm sorry but that's the silliest analogy I've ever heard. I agree that there should be more people enforcing the borders so that immigrants can't sneak in illegally, but I don't equate people that are in this country illegally as robbing from me.

It's a cycle that continues to perpetuate itself. If people didn't hire undocumented aliens and make it impossible for them to make a living, they wouldn't be risking their lives to come here. There is a serious breakdown of the whole system regarding immigration but I don't agree that punishing those that are already here will fix it. Most of the undocumented aliens in this country work very hard to send money to their families in other parts of the world. They obviously have to get paid under the table so that means they don't get paid minimum wage. They often work like animals and sometimes don't even get paid at all. Who will they tell? No one. So they often get taken advantage of.

We need to make it harder to get into the country. More border patrol and make it harder for people to hire aliens.

Dear Ms stylishdotcom,
Sorry to hear you were almost ripped off. Happy to hear they didn't get away with it.
Also, congratulations, you earned it!!
You know the process you went through to immigrate.
My wife, soon to be ex, is a Mexican National. Good lady, we just had too many differences. She did it the legal way also. I have many latino freinds and the majority of them feel the same. Y yo si habla el Espaniol. Yes, I speak spanish.
For them, it was a long difficult process. They kept at it and saw it through.

Spur...not quite there yet, have another 12 months to go roughly until we finally reach our final destination...the theft happened in the UK (One of the main reasons for getting the hell outta here)

Thanks for your comments though, they were very welcome...