Florida resident, Carlos Gomez is suing Wells Fargo Bank for malicious prosecution relating to an incident of criminal identity theft.  Gomez was falsely arrested in a predawn raid at his home in Kendall, Florida on crimes never committed by him, but were actually done by a bank employee at a local Wachovia Bank (Wachovia is now owned by Wells Fargo) where Gomez had a bank account.  The rogue employee stole Gomez’s identity to launder more than a million dollars that he had stolen from the accounts of other bank customers.  It took seven months for the identity theft to be discovered and for Gomez to be cleared of all charges.  In his lawsuit, Gomez accuses the bank of being lax in its security procedures which, he says, should have been sufficient to prevent this crime.

Although, Gomez’s nightmare is over, many victims of identity theft have more difficulty clearing their names.  Victims of criminal identity theft often find themselves in constant jeopardy of being arrested and jailed for crimes committed by identity thieves who have stolen and used their names to commit crimes. 

TIPS

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

If you learn that you are a victim of criminal identity theft and that someone has stolen your name and committed crimes using your name, you should contact the police and District Attorney’s office immediately.  File a report indicating that you are a victim of identity theft.  Get a letter from the District Attorney explaining the situation so that if you are ever stopped by a police officer or arrested, you can prove that the criminal is not you.  For more details on what you can do, get a copy of “50 Ways to Protect Your Identity in a Digital Age” which can be ordered from Amazon by clicking on the link on the right hand side of this page.