ID Theft Poster Child Faces Sentencing

In Kansas, he was considered to be the “poster child” of identity theft. When officials would explain the problem to the general public, it was the story of Jorge Alvarez Rivera’s crimes they’d often convey.

But if Rivera was a poster child, he could never be held up as a cautionary tale. That’s because the man who was caught with 800 Kansas birth certificates and other fraudulent documents in his trunk after a 1998 traffic accident was never convicted for his alleged crimes, the Associated Press reports.

This week, that all changed. According to the AP, Rivera will finally face his reckoning on unrelated charges of identity theft and making a false claim of U.S. citizenship (Rivera is Mexican).  He is scheduled for a Jan. 11 sentencing in a Wichita federal courtroom. Why Rivera was never prosecuted for the 1998 incident is unclear (the trunk also contained hundreds of Mexican documents and $10,000 in cash). Now, under the current proposed plea deal, Rivera faces up to 30 months in federal prison.

According to the AP, taxpayers absorbed the impact of Rivera’s crimes—searches conducted by several Kansas state agencies revealed that the state had been paying out $200,000 per month, $2 million annually, to 55 undocumented worker families whose names were on the certificates in his possession.  This included state payments for medical costs, aid to dependent children and food.

Let this be a reminder that not all identity theft is credit card fraud. Identities can also be used by others to gain employment, government benefits, prescription drugs, medical care…and more. Just as there are a number of ways identity thieves can use sensitive information, there are a number of ways they acquire it as well.

In the spirit of National Protect Your Identity Week (PYIW), we’d like to remind you to keep an eye on your personal info.


Identity Theft 911 and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling offer plenty of other tips on how to stay safe.