Imagine you're homeless, and you discover that for the past twenty years, someone has been using your stolen identity to bounce checks, buy vehicles, hold jobs and even start a family. Imagine that you bring your entirely legitimate Social Security and state ID cards to the justice system in hopes of having your name cleared. Surely that would be enough proof to have the perpetrator stopped and arrested.
No. This is America.
Instead, the perpetrator uses forged documents and answers to security questions he himself created to "prove" that he's really you. You're arrested for fraud under the perpetrator's real name, held in prison for more than a year, and then remanded to a psychiatric facility- you're obviously crazy, since you keep saying you are who you are- and forced to take psychotropic drugs. You're then released under a court order to no longer use your actual name. Meanwhile, the perpetrator keeps tabs on your sentence, offering hope that you'll "regain your mental fitness".
Finally, you track down where the perpetrator works and file a complaint. A local police detective investigates and uncovers this thirty-plus-year saga of fraud, finally putting the lie to the perpetrator's claims, after which the perpetrator cries about how "my life is over" and "everything is gone".
Sounds like the plot of some dystopian novel? No. This is America.
Actions sent homeless victim to jail and a mental hospital for more than a year
www.theregister.com
