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Auto Insurance Identity Theft – A Victim’s Story |
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April 3, 2007 – From time to time we get stories from victims of financial fraud that we think will help our readers. The following is such a tale. It tells the story of someone who thought she could trust a friend, and wound up getting burned in the process. The author’s name has been withheld at her request.
When I was living in upstate New York, I bought a car. The title and insurance were, of course, in my name. A few months later I got a job offer overseas and had to move quickly in order to take it. I sold the car of a "friend" of mine, signed over the title and cancelled my insurance.
He however was a male under 25 and the insurance, I suppose, was too expensive for him. He never transferred the title (which I didn't know, because I had left the country). He then traded the car in on another car, titled also in my name, (I suppose, because of the insurance costs) and I suppose his wife impersonated me. Then with the new car still titled in my name, she had an accident in the car which resulted in a large amount of damage. (She also used his driver license number as her driver license number.)
When I came back from Europe I couldn't figure out why my car insurance had gone sky-high until I called my former insurance company, who were very nice and explained some of the facts to me (and I filled in the rest from police reports and some shrewd guesstimation).
Although I contacted the police they seemed unwilling to prosecute because I was living in another state. The police in my own state would have prosecuted but the accident did not take place in their jurisdiction, so this fellow has "got away with it". |
While stealing someone’s identity to hold down the cost of auto insurance is somewhat unique, other aspects of her story are fairly common. According to a 2005 study conducted by the FTC, half of all victims of identity theft who could identify the person who victimized them blamed relatives, friends or in-home employees. You always have to keep in mind that money makes people do funny things. Just because someone is a relative doesn’t mean should trust them. The same holds true for "friends". Her story also makes the point that you can’t rely on others to complete paperwork when they have no interest in doing so. In this case, the victim could probably have insured a title transfer of her car by filling out a standard form at her local DMV office. Also, as someone who has been a victim of identity theft myself, I can tell you that you may very well have to fight to get the attention of law enforcement authorities. Identity theft is often viewed by the police as a petty crime unless hundreds of thousands of dollars have been stolen. In my case (my check books were stolen out of the mail) I couldn’t even get the Postal Inspector responsible for my case to drive out to a merchant that had video tape of my checks being cashed. You may very well have to fight to get the attention you deserve. Perhaps the most important moral to this story is, "beware of whom you place your trust in." If you have a friend or relative with financial problems, you may want to think twice before you give them the opportunity to rob you blind. by Jim Malmberg Note: When posting a comment, please sign-in first if you want a response. If you are not registered, click here. Registration is easy and free. Only registered users can write comments.
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Identity Theft 
