LifeLock

If you use false personal information to commit fraud in Iowa, you can’t use the excuse, “I didn’t know it belonged to someone else” any longer. The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled July 14 that the excuse no longer flies, and the decision stemmed from the arrest of an illegal immigrant, Jose Abel Garcia, who was caught using a woman’s identification number in Marshall County, Iowa.

The ruling comes one year after a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court opinion that required federal prosecutors to prove that alleged identity thieves knew the stolen information belonged to a real person.

The state law differs from the federal law in that it requires prosecutors to prove only that the information belonged to another person and was used in a fraud. A “fraudulent” use requires the accused to know his use of the information was illegitimate, but does not require him to know the identification was of another person. Garcia was charged with forgery and identity theft, and was convicted of both counts. He served concurrent 45-day jail terms and was given probation. He has appealed the identity theft conviction.

Garcia was arrested in 2008 when deputies executed a search warrant on vehicles in an apartment parking lot. He gave the deputies a California identification card. Once a search on the card was run, it was found the information belonged to a California woman. Garcia admitted he had purchased the fake card from a third party. He later acknowledged he was in the U.S. illegally, and did not have a Social Security card.

Fake identification cards and Social Security cards, bearing stolen information, are often used by illegal immigrants to obtain work in the U.S. No one knows the extent of the problem, but there are some facts available.

• About 7 million illegal immigrants are using stolen Social Security numbers and paying Social Security taxes. Their payroll tax contributions may be as high as $7 billion a year.
• The contribution of those illegals to the Social Security system added about 10 percent of last year’s surplus.
• Each year, the Social Security Administration receives a very large number of W-2 forms with incorrect and sometimes fictitious Social Security numbers; the withholding taxes from these incorrect numbers are put in the “Earnings Suspense” file, which totals over $189 billion.

The Social Security Administration does notify you if your number is being used illegally by someone else and cannot resolve the problems created by such a theft, but will work with you to be sure your earnings and their records are correct.

To protect your Social Security number and other personal information, call LifeLock today. Receive 30 days free and get a 10 percent discount on enrollment with the LifeLock Promo Code “Defense.”