Ryan Testa pleaded guilty in Connecticut recently to a variety of criminal charges related to a series of motor vehicle thefts accomplished through identity theft.  Testa used stolen identities to apply for loans at motor vehicle dealerships in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island to purchase motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and other performance vehicles.  Once the loans were approved, Testa sent co-conspirators to pick up the motor vehicles.  His co-conspirators came armed with counterfeit driver’s licenses in the names of his identity theft victims, but with the photos of his co-conspirators.  The motor vehicles were then brought to Connecticut where Testa sold them on Facebook Marketplace.  Eventually, however the FBI caught Testa and he will be sentenced on May 21, 2024.

TIPS

One big takeaway from this is that his identity theft victims would not have been able to have had their names and credit used to obtain the vehicles if their credit reports had been frozen because if their credit reports were frozen, even if the identity thief had their Social Security numbers and other personal information, loans would not have been able to have been obtained in their names because to do so would require their credit reports to be accessed.

It also is important to freeze your credit reports to help protect you from identity theft  Freezing your credit is something everyone should do.  It is free and easy to do.   If you have not already done so, put a credit freeze on your credit reports at all of the major credit reporting agencies.  Here are links to each of them with instructions about how to get a credit freeze: