Identity Theft Secrets           Videos             News               SuperSleuths                Articles               About          Solution           Contact          Links

Join the IDT SecretsSuperSleuths.    Your Name:      E-mail:

In grocery store lines and on tread mills around the country people are chatting about Conficker, often called the Conficker computer virus or the April 1st computer virus. What is it and how can you protect yourself?

Reporter Leslie Stall and the 60 minutes audience got an eye-opening education on the Conficker computer program and how computer viruses in general work on Sunday, March 29.

On a Facebook account, an internet security expert sent Stall a message from a Facebook "friend" that was infected with a computer virus. Stall's computer was infected with the virus the moment she clicked on the link from her Facebook friend. With a second computer side by side with Stall's, she was able to see how everything she typed, from bank account information to credit card information at Amazon.com was showing up on the second computer almost as instantly as she typed. Many in the 60 Minutes audience got their first virtual look at how easily and quickly online hackers can steal identities and private information.

Leslie Stall also explored the online hot topic, Conficker, with internet security experts. In grocery store lines and on tread mills around the country people are chatting about Conficker, often called the Conficker computer virus or the April 1st computer virus.

It's important to note up front that Conficker is actually not a computer virus but rather is a computer program, which isn't to say that couldn't be very dangerous. Already it has invaded millions of computers world wide that run on Microsoft Widows by linking one infected computer with another building a large, coordinated machine that computer specialist call a botnet. The estimates vary from 9 million to 15 million computers infected with what internet security experts on 60 Minutes referred to as "a network of spies," in computers that are "sitting there like a sleeper cell."

Conficker Facts:

*Conficker is targeting corporate and company computers.

*Conficker automatically turns off some security settings built into Microsoft Windows.

*Conficker blocks computer users from going to known web sites that offer anti-virus protection.

*So far the Conficker program has only spread and asked its' host for further instructions

*Conficker instructs infected computers to contact a command central and there are specific instructions for contact on April 1st, which has led to the nickname April Fool's Day virus.

What we don't know about Conficker...could fill a computer.

No one yet knows who built Conficker, nor is it obvious why or for what purpose Conficker was created. Was Conficker created by a young Russian cyber gang or a lone basement terrorist? Was it created to steal identities and massive amounts of money or to wreak technical havoc or is it simply a big April Fool's joke? Microsoft wants to know and they have offered $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Conficker's creators.

"We've got some bad guys out there who are extremely sophisticated," said Merrick Furst, a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. "There are a huge number of machines that might be able to be controlled by people other than the owners of those machines."

Dean Turner of the online security firm Symantec doesn't believe that Conficker is an April Fool's joke.

"The vast majority of threats we see today are attempts to steal confidential information. We know there's a large underground economy where personal information is sold," said Turner.

So far experts don't believe that personal computers are targets of Conficker. They believe that Conficker is after corporate networks and that those that run on older versions of Windows are more at risk. Computers running on Apple operating systems or using the free Linux system seem to be safe from Conficker.

Identity theft victim or ringleader? What happened to this former Wells Fargo employee to cause her to be arrested for identity theft and could it happen to you?

The Short Story

Margot Somerville, 64, is a retired Wells Fargo vice president. She's the mother of Todd Harris, a well know Republican strategist. Somerville has never been accused of a crime before in her life and displays her Republican pride with photos of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President George W. H. Bush in the entrance to her home.

So why is Margot Somerville in the news?

Somerville was arrested and taken from her Walnut Creek home in hand cuffs this past year. She was charged with 19 felonies, including felony identity theft on a no-bail warrant out of Colorado. Someone had stolen over $60,000 and police in Colorado believed Somerville was part of the scam.

We'll skip to the chase and let you know that the charges against Margot Somerville have been dropped. But how is it that the retired Wells Fargo vice president, who claims that she is innocent, came under fire for identity theft?

Somerville says...

Somerville says that during an outing to San Francisco with seven friends from her bridge club that a pickpocket on a San Francisco streetcar, BART, stole her wallet in 2006.

She reported the theft of her wallet, credit cards and Wells Fargo ATM card to the San Francisco police. Soon after, there was a $45.00 charge to U.P.S. and then not another peep of fraudulent activity for 5 months. Then Somerville noticed money missing from her bank account and her son noticed money missing from an account he shared with his mother as well. A bank investigation showed that $20,000 was missing from the accounts.

Somerville blames both Wells Fargo and the police for her eventual arrest.

"In my heart, I never knew anything like this could happen," Somerville said of her arrest.

Prosecutors in Wheat Town, Colorado, near Denver say...

Prosecutors say that Somerville masterminded a scam and women who had Somerville's i.d. and stolen checks and bank withdrawal slips stole over $60,000 from Wells Fargo banks from other people's accounts. Despite the fact that the charges were eventually dropped, police still claim that they believe it is Somerville's signature on some of the forged documents and that they don't think it was a mistake to arrest her.

Even after the charges were dropped, Pam Russell, the district attorney's spokeswoman, claims that the case was dropped because "we no longer believed that we had a successful likelihood of conviction," she said.

Wells Fargo says...

Well Fargo's response has been that the bank cooperated with both law enforcement and Somerville's attorneys and that they are happy that the charges against Somerville were dropped.

The Denver area branches acknowledge that it is not Margot Somerville on the security camera tapes but bank managers have said that the bank did follow policy for approving withdrawals claiming that the women had Somerville's driver's license, knew Somerville's social security number and the branch at which she had opened the account.

Just the Facts:

*It was actually Somerville, who unhappy with the bank's response, who first went the Wheat Ridge police who later decided she was the ringleader of a scam.

*Wells Fargo eventually refunded the $20,000 to Somerville's accounts.

*Somerville twice provided handwriting samples, which police said "didn't rule her out as a suspect" and handwriting experts hired by police concluded that Somerville had in fact signed some of the fraudulent documents.

*Somerville was arrested, had a mug shot taken, was shackled to another female prisoner and taken to jail.

*She was released the next day but days later flew to Colorado where she was booked and fingerprinted.

*No other arrests were ever made in the identity theft case.

*Somerville submitted to a lie detector test, which she passed.

*The documents in question were tested for her fingerprints and were not found.

* In October Somerville's attorney wrote the district attorney's office asking them to drop the charges. The case was based "solely on handwriting analysis," she argued, "which in this day and age of sophisticated identity theft rings ... means absolutely nothing."

* In November the district attorney's office dropped the case.

How does an identity theft victim become a target for criminal suspicion?

Linda Sherry of the nonprofit group Consumer Action said it's actually not uncommon for people who make identity theft complaints to find that they are the ones being investigated.

Sherry says, "Banks sometimes tend to want to blame the victim first. They always want to see if someone in your family or someone with access to you committed the fraud - and a lot of identity theft is committed by people who know the victim."

However Sherry adds, "I have never heard of a local police agency going to these lengths to blame the victim," she said. "It doesn't make sense that this agency would use its limited resources to build a case against the very victim of the crime."

The Federal Trade Commission urges victim's identity theft to take these four steps:

*Put a fraud alert on your credit reports.

*Close accounts that you believe "have been tampered with or opened fraudulently."

* File a complaint with the FTC. You can even use an online complaint form.

* Contact your police department and report your identity theft.

Somerville is said to be considering whether or not to sue the bank, the police and prosecutors. He son, Todd Harris is still not content with explanations from either party and remains very angry.

Would you really want to go to a kitchen store, a florist, an electronics store, a clothing store, a computer shop and a grocery store in one day or would you rather swing into a super store and find everything you needed? With Stateregistry.org you don't have to

Most of us don't want to have to go to a super store everyday but sometimes when we need a few things now, whether it's charcoal, milk, fresh flowers, printer cartridges, batteries or socks, a super store offers us convenient one stop shopping for all of our needs. When you need information and records, whether it is a lot of information on one person or confirmation on a few records for a lot people, Stateregistry.org is your one stop shopping super store for online records. The great news is that you don't have to leave your house or even your pajamas to shop at this records super store. Stateregistry.org brings you the largest compilation of databases from both public and private sources.

Using Stateregistry.org is:
-Easy
-Private
-Fast
-Affordable
-Free to try

Here's how StateRegistry.org works:

At the StateRegsitry.org web site you simply enter a first and last name and state or you can choose nationwide. Add a middle initial, approximate age and city if you have it.

Stateregistry.org will give you a list, right away, of possible matches. You can decide if the you feel the matches are correct and you can see if records are available for the name you are searching under. You never pay anything before you can see if the there are records available.

Have an e-mail address or phone number or cell phone number and want to know the name behind it? Stateregistry.org can easily handle reverse searches too. Just tell them what you have and they'll let you know what records are available.

In all of our tests, 100% of the time, StateRegistry.org was able to tell us the name and city of the owner of e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

If you choose to purchase a records package, you'll get your answers immediately, right on your computer and you can even print them out.

What can you search for on StateRegistry.org?

*Address History
*Reverse Records
*Court Records Search
*Criminal Records
*Warrant Searches
*Arrest Records Search
*Background Checks
*Civil Court Records
*Bankruptcy Reports
*Public Records
*Reverse Phone Number Lookup
*Reverse Cell Phone Number Lookup
*Reverse Email Lookup
*Reverse Address Lookup
*Property Records
*State Liens

Remember a preliminary search is free.

For an instant records search for one name, you pay only $39.95. For $9.95 you can add a one year unlimited search for the same time. You'll have over one billion records available and the lookups are instant and printable.

The process is easy to use and very user friendly but don't worry there's customer service available if you need more help.

So think about it. Would you really want to go to a kitchen store, a florist, an electronics store, a clothing store, a computer shop and a grocery store in one day or would you rather swing into a super store and find everything you needed? With Stateregistry.org you don't have to pour through web site after web site from state after state and you don't have to go to a courthouse, write to a state records department or hire a private investigator. Get your questions answered. Who are those phone calls really coming from? Get your suspicions confirmed or denied. Does a new acquaintance have a criminal record? You can know in just minutes with StateRegistry.org.

If identity theft crimes are happening faster and faster then, checking hard copy statements that arrive in the mail once a month is clearly not enough to stop identity theft. Maybe we need to check on our finances more frequently - and Clickatell SMS thinks so too.

Identity Theft Facts for 2008:

*Identity theft increased 22% in 2008.

*Over 9 million people were affected by identity theft last year.

*The average cost of identity theft was over $500.00.

*Identity theft crimes are happening faster with 71% of crimes happening within one week of the identity being stolen. That's an increase from 33% in 2005.

*Even as identity thieves become more sophisticated, tried and true methods of identity theft like stealing purses or wallets and checkbooks, debit cards and credit cards are still the most common. Of course once identity thieves have these treasures in hand, they can multiply the information using cyber theft too.

Despite various anti-identity theft technologies, computer programs and safe habits, identity theft is increasing, not decreasing. Not only is it happening more often, it is happening even faster.

If identity theft crimes are happening faster and faster then, checking hard copy statements that arrive in the mail once a month is clearly not enough to stop identity theft. Perhaps even checking accounts on-line weekly is not enough. It seems as if consumers may need to scrutinize financial transactions almost instantly.

Clickatell SMS Receipts thinks you should too.

What is Clickatell SMS Receipts?

Clickatell SMS Receipts is a service that can be used by banks, credit unions, payment processors or credit card companies to notify customers instantly by text message to their cell phone of all transactions. Clickatell relies on the fact that over 3 billion people use and depend on cell phones daily and that SMS technology is already built into every cell phone. With over 200 billion text messages sent in 2008, people are already familiar with the process. Over 80% of the first cell phone generation already uses text messaging and a rising 40% of their parents are catching the text wave as well.

Notifying customers instantly gives customers an advantage to recognize mistakes or fraud and stop it immediately. Offering Clickatell SMS ReceiptsTM gives power to consumers.

According to James Van Dyke, president and founder of Javelin, ""Customers want more control, and institutions should offer tools to customers to check information, account information." He adds that "customers can be just as effective and help catch fraud, because one out of two fraud cases is first detected by the customer."

Do ydou Facebook? Do you eBay? Clickatell is already there.

Moneybookers, the fastest growing e-wallet service available to both Facebook and eBay users, is already using Clickatell SMS Receipts real-time technologies to provide instant alerts to customers.

"Real-time SMS alerts, such as those provided by Clickatell, help make Moneybookers one of the most secure options to pay online. With Clickatell SMS Receipts, we are offering our customers yet another mind-easing security feature for their online transactions," says Nikoiai Riesenkampff, Co-CEO of Moneybooker.

Clickatell SMS Receipts Customers include:
-Standard Bank
-First National Bank
-Nedbank
-CapiTec
-Old Mutual
-Moneybookers
-Metropolitan Life
-Visa
-S1 Corporation and others

Who's TXTing you?

Your spouse, your children, your friends, your boss may all be sending you text that they're sure are really urgent or helpful. What about your bank and credit card company? Are they watching out for you in real-time and helping you prevent identity theft with services like Clickatell SMS Receipts?

Prank callers believed that they couldn't be identified with an unknown number. ReverseGenie.com helped to prove them wrong. ReverseGenie.com offers access to a large database of information from both public and private sources. In the past, only law enforcement or licensed private investigators would have had access to such vast resources.

Michelle was involved in a civil suit. Every time she returned from court she would receive calls from an unknown number and no one would say anything. The court battle was stressful enough but these prank phone calls were giving her the creeps and making her afraid to be alone in her own home. Michelle was sure that the calls were related to a defendant but didn't want to risk her credibility by going to lawyers if her suspicions weren't true. A small investment in ReverseGenie.com gave her the confidence to deal with and stop the harassing phone calls. The callers believed that they couldn't be identified with an unknown number. ReverseGenie.com helped to prove them wrong.

What is ReverseGenie.com?

ReverseGenie.com offers access to a large database of information from both public and private sources. In the past, only law enforcement or licensed private investigators would have had access to such vast resources. Now private investigators use ReverseGenie.com and so can you.

All you have to have is a phone number, listed or unlisted, land-line or cell phone or address. It also works for e-mail address or IP addresses.

You can investigate prank or threatening calls, job applicants, dates, neighbors, sitters, friends, new acqaintances, annoying e-mails or suspected web scams right from your computer.

You simply go the ReverseGenie.com and fill in a few simply fields to start a search. ReverseGenie.com will instantly let you know if the information you're looking for is available.

Why Should You Use ReverseGenie.com?

-It's instant.

-It's private.

-It's100% legal.

-It's easy.

-It's affordable.

-It's convenient.

-ReverseGenie.com has fully organized databases.

-ReverseGenie.com reports are printable.

Here's a Sample Using the ReverseGenie.com Submit form:

I type in a phone number and ReverseGenie..com instantly lets me know the city and state the phone number is registered in. It tells me that the phone is wireless. It tells me that the service carrier is U.S. Cellular Corp.

Now here's the good part. ReverseGenie.com let's me know that the name, address and a background report on the person who owns the phone is AVAILABLE.

I'll never pay not knowing what results are available.

Whatever your questions are, ReverseGenie.com has answers.

What Can You Learn Today from ReverseGenie.com?

Reverse Records Searches may include:

*Reverse Phone Numbers
*Reverse Cell Phone Numbers
*Reverse Email Addresses
*Reverse IP Addresses

Background Records Searches include:

*Background Checks
*Criminal History
*Bankruptcy Reports
*Public Records

Civil Records Searches include:

*Birth Records
*Divorce Records
*Marriage Records
*Legal Records

What's on your mind?

ReverseGenie.com offers an instant report access and 1 year of unlimited reverse phone look ups for a one time billing of $39.95 or you can choose an instant report access for one phone number for just $14.95.

Want more information?

For an additional $4.95 you can add basic background checks with tons more information.

If you're wondering just who is secretly causing road rage in your life, maybe it's time to put it in reverse with ReverseGenie.com and get back into the driver's seat.

If you've had a burning desire to investigate someone but don't want private investigator fees to burn a hole in your pocket, then you need to know about webstigate.com. Guess what? It's a tool used and recommended by private investigators!

If you've had a burning desire to investigate someone but don't want private investigator fees to burn a hole in your pocket, then you need to know about webstigate.com. Guess what? It's a tool used and recommended by private investigators!

You can get answers to your questions instantly from your computer in the privacy of your own home.

What's on Your Mind? Having you been wondering:

Where an old flame is living?

If a new acquaintance has a criminal record?

Who's been calling you repeatedly?

Whether someone has been married before?

If someone is still married?

If someone has liens or a bankruptcy history?

Who lives at a certain address?

If you've got questions, Webstigate.com has millions of answers collected from both public and private sources.

What You Can Investigate on the Web from Wegstigate.com:

*Background Checks
*Background Reports
*Criminal Records
*Court Records
*People Trace
*Search by Name
*Reverse Phone Search
*Reverse Address Search
*Public Records
*Bankruptcies & Liens
*Unclaimed Asset Search
*Property Records
*Vital Records
*Birth Search
*Marriage/Divorce Search

Do you have unclaimed assets? Are you SURE?

During these lean economic times, most of us could every dollar available to us. Webstigate.com offers an Unclaimed Asset Search. A pleasantly surprised customer found a three year-old $3,000.00 tax refund that was owed to her. Needless to say, she's a very happy Webstigate.com customer. Before you start to think that there's no money out there owed to you, check out this list.

Sources of Unclaimed Assets May Include:

*FHA insurance refunds
*Undeliverable IRS tax refunds
*Unclaimed state tax refunds
*Unclaimed private pension plan benefits
*Unclaimed government employee benefits
*Unclaimed Child support
*Unclaimed deposits from failed banks
*Heirs of Holocaust victims
*American Indian Trust royalties
*Unclaimed railroad insurance
*Unclaimed life insurance
*Unclaimed assets from all 50 states
* Over 50,000 Business Unclaimed Accounts

Unique Features of Westigate..com

Webstigate.com has over 3 million criminal records available. Since laws regarding available criminal record information vary from state to state, webstigate.com offers a unique feature called "Coverage Area." Simply click on coverage area and choose from the states listed to find out exactly what criminal record information will or will not be available.

Want to know what a report may look like before you buy? The webstigate.com homepage offers a free look at Sample Reports.

You can even do a search for the specific name before you buy. All you need is a first and last name and state and Webstigate.com will show a list of possible matches including ages and cities. If there are no matches, Webstigate.com will tell you that there were no matches found, so you'll never pay to search for records that are unavailable.

Instant Report Access is only $24.95 and you can add 1 year unlimited search passes for just $14.95. This is not a subscription-based service with repeated billing. You decide which services meet your needs and Webstigate.com offers ONE-TIME billing. They're sure that if you need to do further investigations in coming years, you'll come back to Webstigate.com.

Webstigate.com also offers Corporate Discounts and Volume User discounts too!

From right where you're sitting you can do your own investigations on the web using Webstigate.com right now.

The dark and increasingly dangerous world of identity theft is often presented to us as mere personal chaos revolving around fake credit card charges. While this is a valid concern, the emerging dimension of this threat is far more sinister. Today, identity theft has morphed into something far more odious: "identity assumption."

This fast-growing crime now facilitates many drug deals and massive fraud. But that is just the beginning. It is only a matter of time before another major terror event occurs in which identity assumption is a key component. Security professionals are extremely reticent to divulge exact details lest they provide the roadmap for an upstart identity assumption ring; however, amid growing concerns, they are now willing to talk in general terms.

One quarter of the planet's population has some sort of internet access. PCs on high speed connections are left running nonstop, 24/7, with most sporting some version of Microsoft Windows operating system. They can be compromised en masse and herded together into vulnerable formations known as botnets. A shadowy, ever shifting market of botnet operators rent these systems in time increments as small as five minutes. Large scale applications include spamming and denial of service. The largest of these ever sighted controlled over 400,000 member PCs, the virtual equivalent of a nuclear tipped cruise missile when pointed at some hapless web site.

Smaller in scope but much more dangerous are systems used as hops for a system breaker, gathering credit card and personal information. Compromise a PC or two in each U.S. time zone, throw in a system in China or Vietnam, daisy chain them together, and the ad hoc camouflage is proof against any law enforcement effort, no matter how serious the misbehavior. Only a quarter of the world's countries have computer intrusion laws on the books and coordination isn't the best among those who do have them. Nations such as China or Vietnam are simply black holes for foreign law enforcement requests when identity-related crimes are involved.

Similar chaining occurs on the physical documentation side of this problem. Those skilled in this espionage-like trade obtain personal information from the Internet, parlay this into a library card or another sort of soft identity, then work their way up to driver's licenses and passports. Identities are then sold to the highest bidder with little concern for what their motives might be. September 11th proved that a single person can be as dangerous as a tactical nuclear weapon.

This global industry had its genesis in the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Well trained, idle KGB agents plied their trade in criminal rather than political intrigue and quickly became recognized masters of the art. The open, global nature of the internet was a natural outlet for them. Their success did not go unnoticed. Today many nation states reportedly employ similar organizations in support of their strategic objectives. The former territory of the Soviet Union has been a rich incubator for this, with Romania and Bulgaria receiving particularly high marks for their contributions to the problem.

The situation is about to get markedly worse for a variety of reasons. Consider the multi-billion dollar fraud of Bernard Madoff, the Stanford Financial Group, or the platoons of less creative players who merely rolled up eight and nine digit takes. If the regulators couldn't find and stop that, we can safely assume that no one is watching the contractual and operational security aspects of an outsourcing deal between an American company and a service provider in Pakistan. A simple lack of oversight, or even a lack of understanding of the need for oversight, can permit an authorized insider to cause more trouble than the professional system breaker.

Infosec Analyst Laura Wilson sums it up nicely: "Remember when the Soviet Union broke up and everyone was worried about keeping track of their plutonium? Today's situation is just as bad - our companies can't keep track of the data with which they've been entrusted."

Wall Street's distress is going to exacerbate the troubles. Toxic paper tied to questionable mortgages has accumulated in bank vaults all over the country. Concerns are coming apart--not due to problems in their operation or overall concern about their sector--but instead due to bankers all but panicking and pulling their customers' credit in order to shore up their own shaky positions. Watching the market gyrations closely are players like the Chinese government, holding two trillion dollars in U.S. sovereign debt, and the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund with its six hundred billion dollar war chest.

The U.S. State Department in conjunction with the U.S. Treasury have rules in place to ensure that foreign wealth isn't buying up American companies for the sake of strategic interests, but these protected businesses are in narrowly defined categories. How this will work in difficult economic times when any company handling credit cards is a treasure trove of clean identities capable of enabling foreign agents and international criminals to move freely through our borders?

The provenance of the foreign companies doing the purchasing of domestic firms is another gap where identity assumption comes into play. A shell company leads to a false identity which leads to another shell company which leads to a far away post office box rented the summer before by a man three years dead. The first hints of investigation of the first ring of defenses leave those at the core of the problem plenty of time to wind up their operations and make their escape.

Madoff and the managers of the Stanford Financial Group were filled with hubris and were beyond unethical, but they are real people who sold a fake product. The next round of revelations will be of real products, falsified personal and corporate identities, and mysteries of future harm contemplated by the authors of the crime.

Cutting Edge Sci-tech Writer Neal Rauhauser is an analyst and consultant on energy and telecommunications. He is a member of the Stranded Wind Initiative and can be found at www.strandedwind.org.

A federal identity theft law meant to protect individuals from the devastating consequences of identity theft by toughening consequences for criminals using another person's identity in connection with another crime is getting another look by the Supreme Court.

A federal identity theft law meant to protect individuals from the devastating consequences of identity theft by toughening consequences for criminals using another person's identity in connection with another crime is getting another look by the Supreme Court. The federal law called for an additional two-years added to sentences when another person's social security number was used in the commission of a crime and the offender "knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person."

So why is the Supreme Court taking another look?

The question on the table is not whether the law being used as intended is constitutional or even whether or not it is deterring identity theft. The question before the Supreme Court is whether or not the federal identity theft law can be fairly applied to illegal immigrants who use fake social security numbers to obtain employment in the U.S.

The law intended to punish identity thieves committing financial fraud has been used or threatened in immigration prosecutions in cases where the social security numbers used turn out to be actual social security numbers with owners.

Justice John Paul Stevens, just one of the justices concerned about the interpretation of the law by the government, said, "There's a basic problem here." He added, "You get an extra two years if it just so happens that the number you picked out of the air belonged to somebody else."

The key element of the discussion revolved around the words "knowingly" and how far down the line of the statute it applies.

The Case Scenario:

Ignacio Flores-Figueroa, the client, was a Mexican citizen working in a plant in the United States illegally. Initially, Flores-Figueroa used a fake social security number and name. The fake social security number happened to not belong to any U.S. citizen. After six years, he told his employer that he wanted to be known by his real name and offered up a forged social security card and alien registration card. This time the forged social security card number had an owner.

Mr. Flores-Figueroa was caught and plead guilty to immigration offenses. He was given a 51 month sentence but went to court to fight the additional time incurred under the identity theft laws.

Flores-Figueroa's lawyer, Kevin K. Russell, believes that "knowingly" means the government must prove that his client knew the social security numbers belong to someone else in order for the federal identity theft law sentencing to apply.

The United States Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld the conviction arguing that the government only needed to prove that Flores-Figueroa knew that he was using fake information and not whether or not he knew the fake numbers had owners.

The Two Sides Square Off:

Russell argues that two people who commit identical crimes could have different punishments. On the other hand, two people could have identical punishments that committed two different crimes, results that have been referred to as "perverse results."

Toby J. Heytens, representing the government wants the court to focus on the victims not on the perpetrators arguing that the law often makes distinctions between equally culpable behaviors based on the consequences.

From the Supreme Court Bench:

Several justices seem to concur that the federal identity theft law was ambiguous enough to defer to a "rule of lenity." Justice Scalia added that from the bench that in which case the "tie goes to the defendant."

We're Putting YOU on the Bench!

Is it fair to use to use the federal identity theft laws to apply to immigrant prosecution, even if it appears to punish those who pick a real social security out of a hat and not apply to those who pick a fake social security number? We'd love to hear your arguments in our comments section.

Have a few suspicions about whether or not someone you know is a criminal? Criminalregistry.org has over a billion answers.

Today's world is a very transient society. We're just not likely to have known all of the people that enter our own world for all of our lives. We're not likely to know everyone going back three generations. When it comes to people entering our neighborhoods, our children's activities, our aging parents circles, our businesses or even on a real personal level, sometimes our inner voices whisper concerns in our ears. Many of us have learned to listen to those little nagging feelings. But what can you do that will be confidential and not cost a fortune or take up a lot of time? When you have lingering questions, criminalregistry.org has answers.

Sure, some areas offer free access to criminal records on-line but that only works if the person has lived for all their life in one area or else you have a life long list of addresses. With criminalregistry.org you can start with a first and last name (a middle initial helps even more) and a state (an approximate age is also helpful). From there, you can access records nationwide.

Criminalregistry.org makes it so easy. You can search criminal records in the privacy of your own home and get answers instantly. No courthouse records searches, no hiring private investigators, no embarrassing "noisy" questions and no exhausting on-line searches that leave you wondering what you've missed.

Becky was concerned about someone who kept showing up and "volunteering" with children's activities in her neighborhood. He wasn't a paid employee so there wasn't an application to be evaluated. Becky's husband was concerned too but he didn't want Becky to be "asking around" and "stirring things up." Still, she couldn't ignore her mother's intuition. When Becky found criminalregistry.org it was a very affordable easy to use answer and her husband approved whole-heartedly. Becky's concerns were answered instantly and privately.

Criminalregistry.org is the fastest search engine of all we've tested for instantly accessing detailed, printable reports that may include:

*Felonies, Misdemeanors & Sex Offenses
*Police Records
*20 years address history and phone numbers
*Comprehensive background check
*National arrests
*Court Warrants
*Bankruptcy
*Tax Liens
*Civil Judgments

You may also use CourtRegistry.org services to search for:

*Distinguishing Bodily Marks
*Relatives with Addresses
*Roommates, Neighbors and/or Associates
*Comprehensive Background Check
*Age/Date of Birth
*Maiden Name
*Aliases
*Property Ownership
*Marriages or Divorce records
*Death Index

With criminalregistry.org all transactions are ONE-TIME only. You can enjoy Premium - Unlimited Criminal Searches for 1 Month for only $39.95. A Basic - One Time Criminal Report is $19.95 or you can add Unlimited People Search and Reports for $9.95. Criminalregistry.org offers a 100% guarantee and No-Hit No-Charge Policy guarantees that if your query yields no result we will not charge your account.

Criminalregistry.org Facts and Figures:

• Over 15,000 visitors each month
* Updated daily
* Over 600 new records weekly
* Public records on file: 1,247,528,873
* Database photographs on file: 1,592,733

You can replace those nagging feelings in your heart and questioning voices in your head with answers today from an extensive database of both private and public records at criminalregistry.org.