Man Uses 8 y.o. Daughters Identity To Get Phone Service

[matcom]

<snip>

EAST CONEMAUGH, Pa. (AP) -- A man was charged with fraudulently using the identity of his 8-year-old daughter to get telephone service.

Cecil E. Cole III could not get service in his own name because he already owed Verizon on four separate phone bills, said Cambria County Detective Ron Portash. He used his daughter's name to obtain service between August and October, investigators said.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2004/03/24/man_uses_daughters_identity_to_get_phone_service/

[GOPisEvil]

1. Heck I know of lots of people who do that!

I used to be a Food Stamp/Welfare case worker. A lot of my clients had poor credit, so they'd establish phone service under the name of one of their kids.

[gmoney]

2. Yeah, I guess this is a common trick among the poor

...or so I hear anyway. Get a utility or phone service set up in your kid's name (helps if the kid has a different last name, which is common enough), because your name is mud. So when you get cut off for not paying the bill, it will be a ding on the kid's future credit record.

It's a shame that things have to come to this in "the richest nation on earth."

[rabid_nerd]

3. Not new, not recent...

I've never done it, but I know a lot of people who do it currently and has off and on for 30 years..

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. If we just made being poor illegal, we wouldn't have these problems

That's why I vote republican!

[thatgemguy]

5. Not an unusual case

I work in social services administering Home Energy Assistance.

I had a client who had their electric service in their 18 month old daughter's name. It's a pretty common practice, get disconnected then to get service restored, use a kid's name and SSN.

I feel bad for the children who find out they can't get utility service when they turn legal age, because their parents had service in that child's name and then racked up an enormous arearage on that account.

[frylock]

6. 8 year olds, dude..

[Xithras]

7. I know a guy who went to prison for this (extreme case)

The guy was a total jerk and had totaled his own credit because he was too stupid to pay his own bills. He made over $70k the year I knew him, but blew every penny of it on stupid crap like sponsoring amateur racecars, taking vacations, or buying his dad a 25' fishing boat. He had the money to pay his bills, he just didn't bother.

Anyway, his name was "Chuck", and he had a 4 year old illegitimate son named "Chuck Jr" (he was married to one woman, had a fling with another, and the flingee got pregnant). After a while, the credit companies stopped offering him credit, his car was repo'd, and his mortgage company sent him a letter basically saying "we don't want to finance you anymore, refinance in 60 days or we're foreclosing". So, like all great creeps, he took advantage of his own child by using his name and SSN to refinance his house, purchase TWO new cars, and get his electricity turned back on (the guy owed over $1000 to the electric company when they pulled the plug).

Here's where it gets interesting. The kids mom was aware of what was happening, but kept her mouth shut for a while because he was paying her pretty generous child support. When he realized that he couldn't keep blowing money like that, he scaled back on the child support which really pissed her off. She filed a complaint with the police, the DA filed a bunch of felony fraud charges against him, and he was sent to prison for two years. To top it all off, the mother was successfully able to argue that the assets were in her sons name, which made him the legal owner (and gave her control as his legal guardian). His wife was the only one who fought that assertion, but the mothers attorney was sucessfully able to argue that the wife had willingly allowed the home to be transferred into her sons name, so she had no grounds to contest her legal authority over the property. She sold nearly ALL of his belongings and seized a bunch of his assets that were in her sons name. She pocketed a huge sum of money from all of this, but the guys wife and other two kids were left destitute and homeless.

Personally, I think he should have received more than two years.