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1 edit | Oregon Victim gets paypack from 35 years of Identity Theft
Tom Lesh, 66, holds a stack of correspondence he has had for the past three decades regarding his identity theft at his home |
AP
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Gene Johnson, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jul 30, 8:43 pm ET
»news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090731/ap_···id_theft
Tom Lesh, 66, holds a stack of correspondence he has had for the past three AP – Tom Lesh, 66, holds a stack of correspondence he has had for the past three decades regarding his identity …
SEATTLE – An Oregon man who was the victim of a 35-year-long identity theft said Thursday he's so happy about an arrest in the case that he could kiss the special agent who handled it.
"I can't believe this has finally come to a head after all these years — it's like I've been released from prison," Tom Lesh, of Coos Bay, told The Associated Press. "I was just talking to Special Agent Matt Lavelle and I want to kiss him."
Lesh, 66, said he's known since the 1970s that his brother's friend stole his identity, and he appealed to everyone from the IRS to the suspect's own mother for help — to no avail. As the decades wore on, he said, he spent "thousands of hours" writing letters to credit card companies, banks, insurance companies and government agencies, trying to clear his name.
"At one point I thought about getting a hit man, but I worried that with my luck, they'd get the wrong Tom Lesh," he joked.
Finally, early this year, a Premera Blue Cross insurance fraud investigator named Sandy Larson took up the case. Premera had received claims for treatment a Tom Lesh received at Northwest Hospital in Seattle, but the real Tom Lesh told the company it wasn't him.
Larson forwarded the matter to Lavelle, a special agent with the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General. Lavelle tracked down the suspect, a 58-year-old truck driver whose real name is Clark Mower, and arrested him Wednesday near his Seattle home. He was charged in U.S. District Court in Seattle with aggravated identity theft, Social Security number misuse and unlawful production of an ID.
Mower faces a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and up to five years if convicted. His public defender, Peter Avenia, said Mower was ordered released Thursday on electronic home monitoring pending trial, but he otherwise declined to comment.
Lesh said he and his brother worked with Mower at a plastics factory in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, and that after his brother moved to Oregon, Mower followed him north.
One night, Lesh said, the two friends got drunk, and when Mower mentioned needing an ID to avoid a drunken driving charge in California, "My goofy brother must've said, 'Well, you should use my brother's,'" and gave Mower personal details such as his mother's maiden name and Tom Lesh's place of birth.
Lesh said his brother didn't know Mower had followed through with the plan. But soon, someone in the personnel department at his company informed him that a person in Oregon was using his Social Security number for work reasons.
Lesh said he figured out what happened when a friend went to Oregon and saw Mower. The friend reported back that Mower freely spoke about using Lesh's identity.
Thus began his long nightmare. From the 1970s into the '80s, the IRS tried to get Lesh to pay $10,000 in back taxes, according to Lavelle's affidavit in the case. In 1984, after Lesh moved to Oregon, he was denied a car loan and learned that thousands of dollars of bad debt had been incurred in his name. In 1986, someone using his identity filed for bankruptcy in Seattle after running up $139,000 in debts in Lesh's name.
"He had gotten an 18-wheeler with my credit, screwed it up and turned it into a bankruptcy," Lesh said.
In 1999, Lesh's doppelganger began receiving benefits from Washington's Department of Social and Health Services, even though Lesh had never lived in Washington.
Lesh said he never had to pay any of the obligations run up in his name, and he eventually had a fraud alert attached to his credit, so credit card companies alerted him when someone used his ID to apply for a new credit card. By providing statements from his employer and copies of his pay checks he was able to convince the IRS he didn't owe anything.
But beyond that, he said, no one would listen. He brought his case to state and local police, the Social Security Administration, and at one point even called Mower's mother, pleading with her to tell her son to stop.
Lavelle wrote in his affidavit that the suspect had taken out a Washington driver's license in Lesh's name, and the application for DSHS benefits included Mowers' address in northwest Seattle.
Lavelle called it the most satisfying — and unique — case he's ever worked on.
"I've never seen a case like this that went on for almost 40 years," he said. "We've made a very big difference in Mr. Lesh's life, and it's about time somebody did. He was at the end of his rope, and now he's on top of the world."
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| Right-on!
Bummer though about the amount of time Clark Mower faces (a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and up to five years if convicted), seeing as Mr Lesh spent his entire adult life in what he described as "his own prison"
________________________________________________________
"At one point I thought about getting a hit man, but I worried that with my luck, they'd get the wrong Tom Lesh," he joked.
________________________________________________________
Heh-heh
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 DataDocMy avatar looks like me, if I was 2D.Premium
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| said by SmackWeasel:Right-on! Bummer though about the amount of time Clark Mower faces (a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and up to five years if convicted), seeing as Mr Lesh spent his entire adult life in what he described as "his own prison" ________________________________________________________ "At one point I thought about getting a hit man, but I worried that with my luck, they'd get the wrong Tom Lesh," he joked. ________________________________________________________ Heh-heh Should be per count, 2yrs per every time he used the stolen id.
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said by SmackWeasel:Right-on! Bummer though about the amount of time Clark Mower faces (a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and up to five years if convicted), seeing as Mr Lesh spent his entire adult life in what he described as "his own prison" Heh-heh It's all on how you look at it. I wouldn't want to spend one hour in state prison, so two years to me wouldn't be a very good experience.
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 coldmoonPremium
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quote:
Should be per count, 2yrs per every time he used the stolen id...
...and be forced to reimburse every organization and service he defrauded over the entire 30+ years...
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| said by coldmoon: quote:
Should be per count, 2yrs per every time he used the stolen id...
...and be forced to reimburse every organization and service he defrauded over the entire 30+ years... Yep the reimbursement will be from the great state prison job that pays thirty cents an hour. He will be working many hours to pay off the restitution debt.
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Yep the reimbursement will be from the great state prison job that pays thirty cents an hour. He will be working many hours to pay off the restitution debt.
Good!
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 dandelionPremium,MVM
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The sentence is WAY too light!  |
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 Doctor FourMy other vehicle is a TARDISPremium
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Dallas, TX | said by dandelion:The sentence is WAY too light! Agreed. It ought to be 10 times that.
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| said by Doctor Four:said by dandelion:The sentence is WAY too light! Agreed. It ought to be 10 times that. Dropping the bar of soap in the prison shower room, is a lot better then ten times the current sentence. Always remember that grasshopper  It's all on how you look at it, kind of the perspective of the actual sentence to the punishment served.
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As a victim of identity theft myself, I'm always glad to hear of these ID thieves being put behind bars. Unfortunately, in my case, the thief got away and my local police department was no help. The only good thing about my case is that I caught it early and little to no damage was actually done.
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| said by Jason Levine:As a victim of identity theft myself, I'm always glad to hear of these ID thieves being put behind bars. Unfortunately, in my case, the thief got away and my local police department was no help. The only good thing about my case is that I caught it early and little to no damage was actually done. That's because the local police don't know anything about the Internet protocols and how to correctly deal with identity theft. A lot of the cops around here are dumber then a bucket of rocks and couldn't tell you what a I.P. number is or how to deobfuscate a hyperlink.
This is a big part of the problem and why arrests are not made more frequently.
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Unless things have changed, there is not one central location you can report ID theft usually. If you live in one area, yet your information is illegally used in another area, the local police refer you to that other area hence, you may be talking to more then one police department. |
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 exocet_cmYou delete it, I'll find itPremium
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kudos:2 | said by dandelion:Unless things have changed, there is not one central location you can report ID theft usually. If you live in one area, yet your information is illegally used in another area, the local police refer you to that other area hence, you may be talking to more then one police department. Yeah, I'll admit that law enforcement agencies, at least local law enforcement agencies, are a little behind the times when it comes to identity theft.
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said by dandelion:Unless things have changed, there is not one central location you can report ID theft usually. If you live in one area, yet your information is illegally used in another area, the local police refer you to that other area hence, you may be talking to more then one police department. Or in the case of the State of Pennsylvania where you are directed to the state police computer crimes division because the local cops and magistrates don't want to do any type of real investigative work.
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Seems the sentence is way too light for what he done. he basically ruined his life for 35 years and only gets 5 in prison.
Hell he could have hired a hitman, after all if Tom Lesh (seattle) was dead, all he would have to do is prove he is alive, or enjoy the tax-free life because he would be "dead". |
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As long as sentencing remains as light and flaccid as it is, it will be worth the risk for ID Theft scumbags to attempt the crime.
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I say an eye for an eye. For every year this case went on, is a year spent in prison.
Sounds fair to me. |
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said by David:Seems the sentence is way too light for what he done. he basically ruined his life for 35 years and only gets 5 in prison. Hell he could have hired a hitman, after all if Tom Lesh (seattle) was dead, all he would have to do is prove he is alive, or enjoy the tax-free life because he would be "dead". WOW ! Hiring a hit man will get you ten years, and following through with killing someone will get you life without parole. This guy is not worth doing the time for and he should do some major time for the crime that he committed.
Nice thought , but if you are talking about a child molester or pedophile then your idea sounds real good to me
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DavidNow accepting new patientsPremium,VIP
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kudos:70 | yea but how would you put Tom Lesh in prison, or convict him of a crime if Tom Lesh is dead?
Problem solved!! |
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