Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Identity theft through daughter

A guy convinced my cousin (aunt’s daughter) to give him my aunts personal information. He convinced her to ‘donate’ money to his picture sharing site. He promised her big profits in return. My cousin has no credit and is very naïve. The guy convinced her to apply for credit under her mom’s name but since she didn’t know how to apply online he offered to do it for her. Over the next few months, he applied for several credit cards using my aunt’s information. He convinced her to activate them when they arrived in the mail. She activated a few of them an then he used them to fund his web site. It soon became apparent to my cousin that he was using the credit cards at his leisure. She asked him to stop and planned to confess everything. He threatened her and said he had spoken to a lawyer was prepared, he said that if he got in trouble so would she. Now my aunt has found out about it all because she has received several collections notices from the credit cards. My aunt is confused as to what legal action to take. My cousin admitted to having used the credit cards on a couple of occasions and my aunt is afraid of her own daughter going to jail. How does she proceed against him without getting her daughter in trouble?


Asked on 5/13/05, 9:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Terry A. Nelson Nelson & Lawless

Re: Identity theft through daughter

By calling the police and explaning everything you just wrote. Unless you press charges against the bad guy, this will just continue. A civil suit is also possible, but an attorney will have to analyze whether there is any chance of recovering money from the bad guy. The cousin IS already in trouble, and it will only get worse with time. She needs to come clean with the police and cooperate, but all this should be done through an attorney to help minimize the chance of charges against her too. Contact me if interested in having legal help in this mess.

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Answered on 5/16/05, 2:03 pm


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