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Personally I think the victims of ID theft should sue the federal government for refusing to do its job.Because the federal government has refused to do its job these people were severely inconvenienced and will face more inconveniences.
Puerto Ricans targeted in massive ID theft schemes
Born in a U.S. territory where he has lived all his life, Jose Marrero Rivera didn't know his name and social security number were racking up thousands of dollars in unpaid charges in Chicago and Miami.
The snack bar worker is one of thousands of Puerto Ricans caught up in a lucrative document-fraud scheme to hide illegal immigrants in the United States. They're American citizens with Hispanic surnames. And their records — kept loosely in schools or church rectories, where they are easy to steal — draw as much as $6,000 on the black market.
Only when police showed up at Marrero's San Juan airport food stand to arrest him for car theft did he realize that identity thieves were upending his life.
"All the information, all of it, the driver's license, the Social Security, my address, was mine," he said of the warrant. "I was shocked. I told them simply that it wasn't me."
Documents stolen from Puerto Rico have shown up in fraud-ring busts in Delaware and Ohio and immigration raids on meatpacking plants from Texas to Florida. No government or law enforcement official can put a dollar amount on the illegal trade, but documents are so valuable that addicts on the island trade their own documents for drugs.
"Birth certificates have become legal tender," said Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rico's secretary of state.
The island government's only answer so far is to void every Puerto Rican birth certificate as of July 1 and require about 5 million people — including 1.4 million on the U.S. mainland — to reapply for new ones with security features. New birth certificates will be issued starting July 1, and all old birth certificates will be annulled by Sept. 30.
Read more: Puerto Ricans targeted in massive ID theft schemes
Puerto Ricans targeted in massive ID theft schemes
Born in a U.S. territory where he has lived all his life, Jose Marrero Rivera didn't know his name and social security number were racking up thousands of dollars in unpaid charges in Chicago and Miami.
The snack bar worker is one of thousands of Puerto Ricans caught up in a lucrative document-fraud scheme to hide illegal immigrants in the United States. They're American citizens with Hispanic surnames. And their records — kept loosely in schools or church rectories, where they are easy to steal — draw as much as $6,000 on the black market.
Only when police showed up at Marrero's San Juan airport food stand to arrest him for car theft did he realize that identity thieves were upending his life.
"All the information, all of it, the driver's license, the Social Security, my address, was mine," he said of the warrant. "I was shocked. I told them simply that it wasn't me."
Documents stolen from Puerto Rico have shown up in fraud-ring busts in Delaware and Ohio and immigration raids on meatpacking plants from Texas to Florida. No government or law enforcement official can put a dollar amount on the illegal trade, but documents are so valuable that addicts on the island trade their own documents for drugs.
"Birth certificates have become legal tender," said Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rico's secretary of state.
The island government's only answer so far is to void every Puerto Rican birth certificate as of July 1 and require about 5 million people — including 1.4 million on the U.S. mainland — to reapply for new ones with security features. New birth certificates will be issued starting July 1, and all old birth certificates will be annulled by Sept. 30.
Read more: Puerto Ricans targeted in massive ID theft schemes
