New York State Man Allegedly Stole Brother’s Identity To Avoid Child Support

Talk about brotherly love? Imagine your own sibling using your name to get out of taking care of their own responsibilities?

Identity theft is one of the fastest rising crimes across the world, as your credentials can be easily stolen over the phone, through email, or by other means. These fraudsters can then use your likeness for many nefarious reasons, such as opening accounts, or even accessing prescriptions with your name, says Money.com

See Also: Scammers Allegedly Called Hudson Valley Resident On Behalf of Sheriff, But They Got His Name Wrong

But what if the person allegedly stealing your name is your own family?

New York State Man Allegedly Tried to Avoid Child Payments

The Post Standard reports that a New York state man was arrested Monday for allegedly stealing his brother’s identity.

DeWitt Police arrested the Syracuse man after it was found he allegedly used his brother’s identity for a job he had started in late 2023. Police said in a criminal complaint filed in East Syracuse court that the suspect got a job in October 2023 at Monro Muffler using his own brother’s “pedigree and social security."

See Also: New York Man Accused of Murder, Blames It On Identical Twin Brother

The reason, according to officials? Police said the suspect did it so he could get out of having child support taken from his paycheck.

Grandma Gets Her Revenge on Scammers 

Sometimes the bad guys get what's coming to them. Sadly, scammers often try to take advantage of the elderly. However, one feisty grandmother wasn't having any of it, and decided to hit back at a recent attempted scam. Officials say the suspected scammers tried to rob this 73-year-old New York state woman out of thousands of dollars back in 2022.

CBS says the woman told them she received a phone call from someone claiming to be her grandson, who says he had been arrested for drunk driving an needed money to get out of jail. Thing is, the woman from Seaford says she doesn't have grandson who's of driving age, according to Insider. So, she decided to play along with her alleged scammers for fun.

I told him I had the money in the house, and I figured, he’s not going to fall for that. Well, he fell for that hook, line and sinker.

The calls went back and forth, according to CBS. When someone called claiming to be her "grandson's" lawyer looking for $8,000, she knew she had them.

She had already notified police, and so when someone posing as bail bondsman showed up at her home, she handed them an envelope that was full of paper towels.

Police were also there waiting, and soon arrested the 28-year-old suspect from Mineola.