Buying A Black Market ID

How could a California high school principal be earning money from a company in Tulsa? Someone here bought the victim's ID on the streets and now she in trouble with the IRS. It's a nightmare that

Thursday, June 7th 2007, 6:55 pm

By: News On 6

How could a California high school principal be earning money from a company in Tulsa? Someone here bought the victim's ID on the streets and now she in trouble with the IRS. It's a nightmare that Tulsa fraud detectives are seeing over and over again. The California principal had her purse stolen in 2003, and she's still dealing with the problems it created, four years later. Her biggest worry was that someone would go shopping with her credit cards. News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports she never dreamed her identity would be sold, half a continent away.

"What happened, she was notified by the IRS she owed taxes on two years' wages in Oklahoma,â€ said Tulsa Police Detective Cheryl Compton. â€œShe was like, I don't live in Oklahoma. I don't work in Oklahoma. What are you talking about?"

Detective Compton tracked down the woman using the California victim's ID. She had used a counterfeit green card and a counterfeit social security card to get a job with a Tulsa company. Maria Mazriegos, who is in this country illegally, was fired, then arrested.

"They want to work and must provide a valid social security number, that's what they're doing,â€ said Compton. â€œThey're buying IDs on the street, and it's $400, and you can have your identity rearranged."

Computers make it easy for criminals to put their face with someone else's information. Officers confiscate fake documents on a regular basis. It's important not to carry anything with your social security number on it in your purse or wallet. And, you can no longer think of a stolen billfold as a short term problem.

"That's the problem with identity theft, it's not just dealt with in 60 to 90 days, then you're done with it,â€ Compton said. â€œIt's years down the road yet, may lay dormant, somebody might find it, let's use it now, type of thing."

Once a person has your ID and uses it to get a job, you could be in trouble with the IRS for unpaid taxes, like the principal in California, or they could run up bills, even get a mortgage in your name that shows up on your credit report. Even worse, they could get arrested and all the paperwork says it's you.

"That's not just something we can go into and erase,â€ Compton said. â€œThe OSBI and the DA's office have to get involved. It's a lot of paper trail."

If your purse or wallet gets stolen, do a credit check immediately, then have the three credit bureaus put a fraud alert on your accounts. They'll do that free for 90 days at a time, which means they'll call anytime someone tries to get credit in your name, to make sure it's really you.

Mazriegos was let out of jail on a $1,000 bond. She's supposed to be back in court next Thursday.

Watch the video: Stolen Identities On The Black Market