Identity Crisis

1
Identity Crisis

• Donna Calabrese
• Director, Office of Vital Statistics
• Center for Health Environmental Statistics
• Division of Health
• Kansas Department of Health Environment

2
Increasing Problem of False Identities

Who am I???

• Fraudulent use of valid birth certificates
• Falsely created birth certificates

3

• 
  Trunk Load
  of
  
  Identity
  
  
  
  
• In 1998, Daniel Salas had a vehicle accident near
  Liberal, KS.
• Contents of trunk
• Thousands of U.S. birth certificates
• 830 Kansas documents
• Hundreds of Mexican documents
• 10,000 in U.S. currency
• Daniel Salas himself was using a false ID.
• Birth certificate of an individual born and died
  in TX

4
Fraudulent Documents

• Of the 830 KS documents
• Some were valid birth certificates.
• Some were false, made by using the valid ones as
  templates.
• Removed name, DOB, parents names, sometimes
  doctors name, town, and hospital.
• Filled in the blanks with new
• information.

5
Record Searches, Flags

• Our office followed up by
• Conducting record searches on each of the 830
  certificates
• Flagging and protecting all of the valid Kansas
  records
• Creating a master list of all fake records made
  using a Kansas record template
• Referenced each of the fake records to the valid
  record used as a template

6
Cost to Kansas Taxpayers

• KS Social Rehabilitative Services
• System hit on 105 of the 830 names on fraudulent
  documents.
• 55 of those individuals/families were receiving
  assistance.
• Total payout from the state was 200,000 per
  month, or around 2,000,000 annually.

7

The Sequel

• In 2003, received a request for certified copy of
  birth certificate
• Handwritten request listing birth, parental
  information, and social security number.
• Provided photocopies of identification
• Social Security card
• California drivers license
• U.S. passport
• 4 credit cards

8

9
Investigating the Request

• Requestor sent copy of birth certificate not on
  file
• Chief of Certification, the Fraud Coordinator,
  investigated the request.
• Found the birth certificate was one created by
  Daniel Salas.
• Contacted Ida Briones with El Paso Intelligence
  Center (EPIC)
• Contacted
• Passport Services
• California DMV
• Social Security Administration
• INS
• FBI

10
The Results

• Discovered individual was using a social security
  number belonging to a boy born in TX who died as
  a child in TX.
• Used name and social security number
• Different DOB, POB, and parental information
• Obtained all ID with fake birth certificate
• Believed somehow the fraudulent birth certificate
  had been filed with
• the state.

11
The Damage

• Fraudulently obtaining
• Social Services benefits
• Employment
• Social Security benefits
• H-1 Status
• Student Status
• IDs for fugitives/terrorists

12
Catch Them In the Act

• Office staff trained to look for and report
  suspicious requests
• Fraud/Security coordinator investigations
• Development and use of key law enforcement
  contacts
• Documentation of incidents and sufficient
  information recorded for future reference
• Appropriate records flagged, annotated