"Suspect wanted for ID theft suspect".

What the hell does that mean? Who writes these headlines for TBC? Do student interns write the headlines now?

Well, that's the Bakersfield Californian for you.  Is it any wonder this publication is in such bad shape financially?

I wonder if more stores actually asked for and checked ID's these people would be caught more often?  Years ago,  when I worked for a local vet, a woman tried to pass off a stolen credit card as hers - we caught it because we asked for ID and called the company - merchant verification or something... anyway, she ended up arrested for ID theft and we got a reward from the credit card company for being proactive. 

At the same time,  we have lots of people who use fake SSN's to get jobs and businesses get letters from the SSA telling them the numbers don't match the names.  The businesses generally don't care, and won't investigate because there is no accountability. Specifically that it is not the businesses' job to verify the actual legality of the documents, just make a copy of the provided doc and attach them to the I-9.  But guess what?  those numbers belong to someone which means, someone, somewhere has had their ID Stolen.  One local business I worked for received lots of these letters questioning SSN provided by the employees and did absolutely nothing, just ignored the letters. When our local office did try to do something about it and we started having employees admit to false documents and quit,  the corporate office ordered us to stop verifying.  Can you believe that?  If businesses were more proactive maybe this problem of ID theft could be curbed a little bit.     

This one particular company, mysteriously had about a dozen California driver's licenses all with the same So Cal Address,  these employees were all referred by the corporate office.   These employees all filed exempt or the max numbers of deductions for tax purposes because they couldnt file tax returns, plus they were able to get loans for cars, houses and credit cards, etc.  It is disgustingly easy to perpetrate all these crimes and get away with it for years and years, especially when so many people would rather just turn a blind eye....

When our local office did try to do something about it and we started having employees admit to false documents and quit,  the corporate office ordered us to stop verifying

Truly disturbing but not shocking. 

My dad was a CPA in Bako and surrounding areas for 30+ years.  Back in the mid 70's, my mom had to help him out by typing up all the w-2's his clients had to send to their employees.  For one farm labor contractor, she kept noticing the same SS#s reappear over and over.  By the time she was done, she'd processed close to a thousand w-2's for this guy, and only used about 2 dozen Socials.  All I can think is that there are a couple dozen lucky number holders out there that had the maximum contribution placed in their accounts for several years running.

Sometimes even checking for I.D. won't help.  Once the criminal gets the information they need to manufacture a card, they place a name on the card that matches the I.D. , but has your bank information coded onto the strip.  So they go into a business with a card that has the name Joe Smith, a license that has the name Joe Smith which has their picture on it, but your bank account is the one being hit as they swipe the bogus card...It happened to me just that way.  Once they have the bank account info, takes very little time to start the stealing and you would be amazed how quickly the bogus I.D. and cards are made.

Also the banks know at the time of purchase if the card is "swiped" in a machine or if it is a computer or phone transaction.  Criminals got my accounts to the tune of $3,000 in less than 24 hours, all with "swiped" transactions, while the original card was still in my wallet.  Guard your info carefully and never use an unsecured computer connection to do any business that requires typing in any financial information.