Free Republic

Think the NSA data collection on your phone calls and Internet use is scary? Well, here comes Obamacare. On October 1, the law’s insurance exchanges are scheduled to start open enrollment in all 50 states. In order to help people sign up for insurance and to determine which applicants are eligible for subsidies or Medicaid, the exchanges will need to collect both tax and health-care data for more than 7 million Americans. This means a new government bureaucracy will be in possession of these people’s financial, employment, and health information — everything from their income last year to the prescription...

As gratifying as it was to see the “news” media actually do its job last week when the IRS scandal broke, it was also odd that the coverage focused exclusively on abuses of power relating to various Tea Party and anti-abortion groups. A much scarier IRS story has been virtually ignored by the establishment press. On Wednesday, it was reported that a class-action lawsuit had been filed against a group of IRS agents who, according to the complaint filed by “John Doe Company” in the Southern District of California, “stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans,...

A Las Vegas trip was cut short for four Chicago women Friday when they were arrested and charged with identity theft as they attempted to board their flight at O’Hare airport, according to Cook County prosecutors and court documents. The four women’s tickets were all purchased with a stolen Discover credit card, and they were each in possession of other fraudulent plastic, Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth Dibler said Sunday at Cook County bond court.

Stealing IDs off the Internet has become easier than swiping candy from a convenience store. Consider the case of Rodney St. Fleur, who was recently charged with taking the names of 26,000 people from public databases, including prison inmates. He obtained their Social Security numbers through online LexisNexis research services at his employer’s law office in North Miami Beach, according to a search warrant. Authorities say some of St. Fleur’s information ended up in the hands of Frantz Pierre, a one-time North Miami gang member who was arrested at his seven-bedroom Parkland home last week. Pierre is accused of heading...

A 21-year-old man who’s charged with killing three people in Broward including a 2-month-old boy is facing new federal charges. U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer told CBS4’s Peter D’Oench that Balizaire was one of 40 defendants charged with trying to bilk the federal government of millions of dollars through identity theft and filing false tax claims. “What we’re seeing is more and more gangs getting involved with such activity because it is lucrative, easy and less dangerous,” said Ferrer.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson says he is leaning toward blocking the use of voter ID for casting ballots in the upcoming election. “It’s a difficult issue,” Simpson observed. “On the one hand, we have a natural desire to ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots. On the other hand, no law is perfect and there is a chance that a legitimate voter could be disenfranchised.” Simpson said he will likely bar the ID requirement because, “I think it is better to let a thousand ineligible voters cast a ballot than to deny one legitimate voter his right to vote.”...

Authorities in Michigan have shut down a Detroit truck driving school for encouraging students to apply for CDLs with fake documents. As of Wednesday, Aug. 15, Great Truckers Driving School can no longer provide driving instruction in Michigan. Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said in a press release she revoked the school’s certificate and fined it $34,000. The school was operated by Sukhjit Sandhu and Rajinder Sandhu. Johnson’s press release said the school provided students with fake lease agreements that listed addresses of vacant buildings or unknowing residents’ homes. Those fake leases were used by students to show they...

A stranger in a Coast Guard uniform introduced himself to New Port Richey police Chief James Steffens. It was a Memorial Day event at a cemetery. The man said he was Lt. Cmdr. Roy Antigua, and he sat next to the chief in a special section for officials. "Everybody around there thought that he was the real deal," Steffens said. But it turns out Antigua is a man of many identities and disguises, none of which appear to be real, authorities said. (SNIP) Antigua, 52, had a NASA uniform. U.S. Customs. The Navy. The CIA. Secret Service. Homeland Security. Dozens...

Illegal immigrant worked as airport security supervisor for TWENTY years under the ID of a man murdered in 1992 Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole was living as Jerry Thomas for about 20 years The real Jerry Thomas was reportedly murdered in Queens, New York, in 1992 Oyewole oversaw 30 security officers at Newark Liberty International Airport in his position as a supervisor Authorities say a longtime security supervisor at a New Jersey airport has been arrested on a charge he was using the identity of a New York City man who was murdered 20 years ago. Illegal immigrant Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole, 54,...

The 65 page indictment unsealed Wednesday outlines a massive conspiracy to defraud employees, IHOP corporate, investors, the Internal Revenue Service and federal, state and local law enforcement. Background Prior to 2003, Tarek Elkafrawi owned and operated two IHOP franchises; one in Decatur, Illinois and the other in Evansville, Indiana. During his time in Decatur, the indictment alleges, Elkafrowi began a social friendship with Autumn Lee Tangas, an employee of IHOP Corporate in Decatur. Between 2003 and 2006 Elkafrawi purchased, either entirely or in partnership with other investors, 6 other IHOP franchises. Those stores are located in Toledo (2), Holland, Findlay,...

About three weeks ago, my husband received a call from a woman verifying applications for food stamps in Palm Beach County, Florida. The lady on the phone, my husband and I quickly learned that someone in PBC had used my husband's ssn on an application requesting food stamps. My husband informed the lady that we have not lived in south FL since 2004, and that we've since been residing in Texas. She and my husband each thanked the other for the information, and she recommended we contact the Jupiter police department to file a report. Over the next few weeks,...

In January the group decided to hit the websites of the US Department of Justice and various media companies in response to the takedown of file storage site Megaupload, providing a guide on Pastebin for those who wished to take part in the attacks. Symantec says that an attacker appears to have copied that guide and inserted their own version of the Slowloris software containing a secret Trojan that downloaded a copy of Zeus, a piece of malware often used to take control of an infected computer.

A man accused of falsely writing in signatures on a petition to recall State Senator Van Wanggaard, including one from a deceased person, is facing nine felony charges. 59-year-old Mark Demet of Racine has been charged by the Racine County District Attorney’s office with two felony counts of election fraud/nomination certification and seven felony counts of misappropriating identifying information for financial gain. If convicted on all charges, Demet faces up to 42 years in prison, and fines up to $90,000. According to the criminal complaint, Demet admitted that he circulated the petition and signed the names of seven people on...

Election Fraud it's all in the family! I took the time to take a cursory glance at the 700 pages of Alpha sorted names from the Wangaard recall, http://www.vanwanggaard.com/ click Alpha list I was just looking for my own name and that of a few folks I expected to find, and to see if others who shouldn't be listed were on the list. Sure enough I had only to get to the "D's"..and I found my friend Jeff is reported to have signed the Recall.......4 Times!!! I know my friend Jeff wouldn't have signed this recall..and I spoke with him...

A bond of $1 million was set in court this morning for an American Eagle flight attendant accused of stealing another man's identity to fly around the world. Jophan Porter, 38, was charged with six counts of identity fraud Friday and is currently in Miami-Dade County jail. He also faces multiple counts of possessing stolen or fraudulent identification and forgery. Porter assumed the identity of Anthony Frair, who lives in New York and claims not to know the man, authorities claim. Authorities said Porter is from Guyana and is in the country illegally.

Link only as per rules.

ANCHORAGE (AP) — For years, the man known as Rafael Espinoza was widely respected as an exemplary police officer popular among his peers here. All that ended last week when the authorities accused him of actually being Rafael Mora-Lopez, a Mexican citizen who stole another man’s identity and was in the United States illegally. “His reputation here is one of a hard-working officer, one who was very professional,” Chief Mark Mew of the Anchorage police said Friday in announcing Mr. Mora-Lopez’s arrest. “The problem, obviously, is he is not Rafael Espinoza.” posted using frpa

- For Immediate Release -- 11 April 2011 -Whose Social Security Number is President Barack Hussein Soetoro Obama Using? Wash Times National Weekly - 11 Apr 2011 - pg 5 - here, Ad also embedded at end of this post. Federal lawsuit* accuses putative President Obama is fraudulently using a Social Security Number which is legally not his and which was issued only to residents of the State of Connecticut, a state where Obama never legally resided and certainly not during the time frame of circa 1977 when that SSN was issued! 042-XX-XXXX* This Social Security Number is reserved for...

A pair of threat reports out Tuesday show changing fraud trends. Phishing, where people are fooled into entering account numbers and passwords at faked sites, continued to rank among several kinds of prevalent threats, in security firm McAfee’s (MFE) Q4 trends report. The company says phishing URLs in the form of the IRS, gift cards, reward accounts and social networking accounts were among the most popular.

Sending dozens of illegal immigrants to jail for using stolen identities to work is a “travesty,” according to the Clinton-appointed federal judge who reluctantly approved the plea agreements of Mexican and Guatemalan employees arrested during a raid at an Iowa meatpacking plant. The 2008 case received national media coverage because hundreds of suspected illegal aliens were apprehended during a massive federal raid at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, Agriprocessing Co. Many used fake identities and stolen Social Security numbers to work at the facility in the northeast Iowa community of Postville and dozens were criminally charged. Now the judge...