Two Very Troubling Cases Of Identity Fraud

      Most of us are familiar with identity fraud. Some criminal gets your personal information. They start getting credit cards and other loans in your name. This can cause you huge legal problems and financial losses. A lot of this danger can be eliminated by investing a small amount of money in a service that monitors your credit report.

      There are other and more sinister cases of identity theft that I have uncovered. In the first case, a Brasilian man named Richard Cesar Guedes obtained the birth certificate of a young child named Eric Ladd who died in a car crash in 1979. He obtained a Social Security account, Texas driver's license, and US passport in this deceased child's name. He went to work at United Airlines. He worked for 23 years as a flight attendant until his fraud was detected. (Probably an informant with a grudge against him turned him in) Guedes was arrested by US State Department officers. Amazingly the security checks required of airline employees including fingerprinting did not detect the fraud. Guedes was sentenced to 7 months in jail and will be deported. One wonders what will happen to all the money in his 401(K)-retirement fund and any benefits he has coming from Social Security. What if some terrorist has done the same thing and got on a plane to blow it up or worse?

     A second case is much more bizarre and troubling. Two Russian KGB agents infiltrated into the US with stolen birth certificates of two dead children with the names Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison. Walter enlisted in the US Coast Guard and served 20 years as an avionics technician before retiring. He then worked as a civilian contractor for the Coast Guard in Hawaii with a high-level security clearance. For those of you really curious, here is a link:

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kgb-photo-deepens-mystery-of-us-coast-guard-vet-and-wife-who-stole-dead-babies-identities-feds-say

    

     When one enters the US military, their fingerprints are taken. If they are going to work in any sensitive area, they obtain a secret security clearance. This clearance is simple to obtain. One's name is run through several US government computers to see if they have had any problems. A top-secret security clearance is required when one works around the most sensitive areas. When I was in the US Navy and stationed at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, I got an offer of a job at the White House. A top-secret security clearance was required. I filled out a detailed questionnaire. I was interviewed by an FBI agent. My whole life was investigated. An agent even went to Alcott Elementary School that I had attended. A minor discrepancy was detected. I was questioned about this discrepancy. I apologized that my memory had slipped after all those years. I was granted a top-secret clearance. I declined the job offer because I would be required to reenlist in the US Navy for two additional years.

     One must wonder how these Russian agents survived all these security checks including a rigorous FBI check. An even more troubling question arises. How many more Russian, Chinese, and Iranian agents have used these birth certificates of deceased US citizens to infiltrate into far more sensitive places than the US Coast Guard? I will leave all of you to reflect on this.