A Westland, Mich. woman has been charged with stealing more than $350,000 from her mother.
Carol Brazeika, 49, raided her 76-year-old mother’s retirement, pension and Social Security funds for five years, beginning in 2004. She was arraigned this week on 14 felony charges, including embezzlement of more than $100,000, identity theft and larceny by false pretenses.
Brazeika used her mother’s identity to pen credit card accounts and obtain loans in her mother’s name. Investigators say the money was “squandered,” and that Brazeika and her husband were unemployed during part of the time, and that likely contributed to the misuse of funds.
One of the most difficult types of identity theft is when a family member is the thief. Our family members are among the most trusted people in our lives, and the conflicts that come with this type of theft are deep and troubling.
Worse yet are the guilt pangs that come if you decide to press charges. The problems that it can cause with peripheral relatives are terribly painful emotionally. Many people decide that they’ll let the relative in question pay the money back. But this then puts the burden on the victim to sort out the mess. And whether or not the money is paid back, trust can never be regained.
Relatives, close friends and neighbors make up 50 percent of all identity thieves. And the thieves you know cost more money – the average cost to identity theft victims when the perpetrator is known is more than $15,000.
But those figures are misleading. Many victims who know the perpetrator are children, and most of those cases are not reported because they’re not discovered yet – in this type of theft, the crime goes undetected for years, until the child grows up and tries to apply for credit. The sad part is that many times, the theft in this case is a parent.
For some parents, stealing their child’s identity is a stop-gap solution. Their own credit is destroyed, so “borrowing” their child’s Social Security number is a “necessity.” And they often have the intention of paying the money back.
In any of these cases, the biggest question mark is this: “Should I report the crime?”
In most cases of identity theft, the chances of the thief being prosecuted is 1 in 700. But when it’s a relative who commits the crime, the odds go sky-high. It’s because of the whole “blood-is-thicker-than-water” thing.
If you are victimized by a family member or someone else you know, remember that it’s your good name and credit they’re destroying. And if they’ve committed a crime using your name, you’ll be the one arrested – not them. It can take years to recover from an incident of identity theft. Is it really worth it to not report it and keep the peace at the family reunion?
Report this crime just like you would any other. Let your local law enforcement assist you in your recovery, and you’ll get back on your feet sooner. It will be a difficult process, for sure. But it’s important to do the right thing – for everyone involved.
Tags: Identity Theft, identity theft by family member, identity theft by relative
