The segment opens with host Juliette introducing a discussion on identity theft, noting that 9 million Americans are affected annually and questioning whether certain groups are targeted. The focus shifts to Melissa Morero, whose husband Manny was deployed to Iraq when a thief assumed his identity. Melissa receives a $2,000 California tax bill despite living in Kentucky, prompting a cascade of fraudulent accounts opened in Manny’s name (gas, utilities, cell phones, rent, car insurance). She spends days on hold with companies and encounters rude, unhelpful IRS agents who still demand payment. After months, a California detective identifies the perpetrator – Cesar Villa, an illegal alien in Torrance, California, who has been using Manny’s Social Security number for three‑and‑a‑half years. The panel includes identity‑theft specialist Robert Siciliano (chief security analyst at OneUSecurity.com) and attorney Remy Spencer. Siciliano explains that identity theft is easy to commit but hard to prosecute, especially when the victim’s debt is under $100 k, and that military personnel are prime targets because they are overseas and less able to monitor credit. Spencer outlines the first steps for victims: filing written reports with local and state law‑enforcement agencies. The discussion also features Bob Wetherspoon, whose adult son stole his identity, racking up $50 k in debt. Wetherspoon describes the difficulty of correcting credit reports, the limited assistance from credit‑card companies, and how he eventually restored his credit with Siciliano’s help. Throughout, the participants express frustration with law‑enforcement resource constraints, the IRS’s inflexibility, and a sense that the system leaves victims to protect themselves, despite existing legislation. The segment ends with a call for individuals to take proactive steps and for legislators to address the systemic gaps.
Chapters
Today, Emma Jay investigates identity theft. 9 million Americans targets a year in this country. Are certain people being targeted over others? Has the justice system made any headway in prosecuting these people?
All those questions are going to be answered, as you're going to see in our next story. Sometimes it's the most vulnerable who make the best targets. Watch this.
When her husband was deployed to Iraq last November, Melissa Morero Melissa already had a lot to worry about as a mother of 3, but her situation quickly got a lot worse.
Shortly after deploying, we received a notice from the IRS stating that we had a $2,000 bill to pay in 20 days.
The payment was for income taxes in the state of California. Only problem is Melissa and her family live in Kentucky.
My husband called me and I was like, "Baby, did you ever work in LA?" He goes, "I don't know what you're talking about. I've never even been to California before." So right then I knew I had a problem.
Her husband's identity had been stolen, and since he was overseas, Melissa was stuck sorting out the mess alone.
I just started uncovering so many horrible things. My husband's Social Security number was used to open gas, electric, water, cable, cell phone, home phone, rent an apartment, uh, get car insurance.
Melissa tried calling the companies to stop the damage to her husband's credit.
It was an 5 job. I was on the phone all day, all afternoon, because companies just kept transferring me or hanging up on me or giving me different numbers.
And when she called the IRS to report the fraud, their response was not good.
They were extremely rude and didn't believe me, and they said, well, you know, you still need to pay this bill.
After months of frustration, finally police out west were able to give her a hand.
A detective in California finally contacted me with the identity of the perpetrator, and We found out that he was an illegal alien working with my husband's information. I was so furious, and I just feel betrayed by our system.
It's an awful story. Melissa's here with us. Also with us today is identity theft expert and chief security analyst for OneUSecurity.com, Robert Siciliano.
And attorney Remy Spencer is with us again. Good to have you all here. My gosh, Melissa, bring us up to date on Manny, your husband Manny. Still serving in Iraq?
Yeah, he's still there.
He was injured while all of this was going on. Why do you think that happened?
Right, I believe the stress— you know, this whole situation caused him a huge amount of stress.
He wasn't sleeping at night, was he?
No, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't eat, nothing.
How'd he get injured?
He got hit by a door when his convoy ran over a landmine.
Oh gosh.
So you ended up finding out who the thief was.
Right.
What happened to this guy? Where is he now?
Actually, he's still enjoying my husband's identity. What?
How is that?
Oh, God.
Yeah. He's still in LA right now. He's still working with his Social Security number.
This guy's name is Cesar Villa?
Right.
And so how long has he been your husband, so to speak?
He's been living as my husband for 3 and a half years.
Goodness gracious.
Robert, why is this guy still out? She knows this. Everybody knows this. Why is he still being able to operate? What's his name, Cesar Villa? Where is he living?
Torrance, California.
Torrance.
Hi, Cesar. What's going on with them?
Well, this is the easiest crime to commit and the hardest crime to get caught for, and law enforcement generally, they do not even investigate crimes where there's under $100,000 in debt.
Why? You say military people are especially a big target, like Manny.
Absolutely.
Why?
Well, think about it. He's overseas. He's not really paying much attention to his credit report. He's fighting for our country. So he's unable to respond to all the different creditors, so his wife's being saddled with the responsibility.
So Melissa, when you call the IRS, what do they say to you?
Uh, they gave me an extension to pay the $2,000 bill.
But that's not your bill. That $2,000 is not your tax.
Exactly. We still can't file our tax return without it being deducted.
Wait, so where is he as far as legally goes? If the police out there, authorities out there are helping you out, why is he not in jail?
Uh, they're not helping us.
The police aren't helping you? Why not?
No, because our case is at the bottom of their file right now.
That's true, Robert?
It's like, you know, finding him and prosecuting him is like, you know, finding a needle in a haystack. And law enforcement, they're dealing with 9, 10 million of these cases every single year. They're overwhelmed.
And here's the thing, if you're sitting here going, well, we hear about these identity theft cases all the time, oh, that sucks for her, this could happen to you. 9 million people, you just said, and everybody is vulnerable.
Every single year, and everybody's vulnerable. If you have a Social Security number, chances are you're going to be a victim of identity theft someday.
Let's say, okay, an hour from now, oh my gosh, somebody has my ID, they're taking on my life. Life. Remi, what do we do first thing?
The first thing you have to do if you think that you are a victim of identity theft is report it. Go to your local and state law enforcement agencies and make some sort of written report.
Isn't that what you did though?
Yes, I did.
Why is that—
why is it not working for her?
The problem here, I mean, the problem with this case, as you said, Juliette, is that everyone is vulnerable and our police officers don't have the resources. They don't have the manpower or the technology to really hunt down and find these people. Melissa and her husband's story is just an example of the worst kind of prosecution, because there is no prosecution. It's almost impossible for a prosecutor to make these kinds of cases. And in this case, it's a great thing that your show is publicizing the lack of, uh, law enforcement involvement in these kinds of cases, because it highlights the problem that we see. All of us are vulnerable, and there's so little that we can do at this point to protect ourselves.
Robert Siciliano, it's up to us to clean it up?
It's all about you cleaning it up, because no one's going to take responsibility other than you, unless of course you invest in a service that will actually protect you.
Do we need to really start getting active as a country and really calling our legislators and saying, "Get on this now"? It seems like— why is this— it's like everybody's blowing this off.
That's already been done. Legislators are already paying attention to it. Laws have already been passed, but it's up to the individual to protect themselves.
You know, sometimes the identity thief can be living under the same roof as you. Welcome, Bob. Wetherspoon, whose own son, his own son stole his identity, spent nearly $50,000 of his money and destroyed his credit. Your son was about what age when he did this to you?
He was about 30 years old.
Why?
Well, he was having some difficult times and he basically wasn't able to secure credit in his own name and when he contacted the credit card companies, they wanted to know, are you Robert William or Robert Edwin? And in a weaker moment, he was Robert Edwin, which is me.
Mm-hmm.
And what happened is he had all of our information, so he— it was pretty easy for this to occur.
Yeah.
Well, my wife and I discovered this, you know, about 3 years later, and, uh, but he had run up quite a bill. But we approached this differently. We figured he's a good boy and he's never done anything really bad. He just made a bad choice. So we embraced him with love and said, we're going to get through this.
How is he now?
He's doing great.
Oh, good.
Fireman. He's just, just doing wonderful.
Well, Melissa is not going to be embracing Cesar Villa anytime soon with any love, I have a feeling. And when your husband comes back, I'm sure he's going to be embracing Cesar Villa. Yeah, not with much love. Do you feel like you've been— I guess, do you feel like you've been screwed over by our country?
Absolutely. Because he works for the government, so you think that they would take care of him. And they don't.
It just—
he probably is worried about this every single day.
Oh, absolutely. He still doesn't sleep.
He's trying to protect us over there and worry about getting killed.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Bob, what was the biggest problem for you when you were going and trying— you heard Melissa's story— when you were trying to right all these wrongs that your son created for you? How difficult was it for you?
Well, what was interesting is the credit card companies, once I told them that I would not prosecute my son, They basically said, "Well, guess what? These debts are yours." So I immediately— fortunately for us, we did some refinancing and we paid the amount, and we paid all the penalties, all the charges, all the interest. And it dawned on me that, you know, they can sit back and just wait because the majority of family members are probably not going to prosecute their children.
So he got 6 credit cards with the same name. I guess the lesson is don't name your son after yourself. Which is tragic. Now we have to do that. But he got these 6 credit cards, $50,000. Did the credit card companies want to help you? You answered this a little bit. I guess they have no reason to, they want the money.
Correct. And when I tried to start into getting the, uh, my credit history corrected and get some things corrected on my credit reports, fortunately I got to meet Robert here. And Robert helped me immensely get this done. And within 2.5 years, everything was corrected back to a better credit rating. But what's interesting is during this time that this happened, I was getting all these no unsolicited offers. Now I'm getting them again. Oh my gosh.
Hey Robert, very quickly before we introduce our next guest. When you call a credit card company, I mean, I know sometimes when I'm calling it's like, "Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh." And they don't understand and they're not very helpful. Who should you call? What department should you call first?
Well, we're in a credit-driven society and they want to issue credit. They want to issue credit to anybody who has a pulse or again, a Social Security number. And so when you make these calls or an identity thief makes these calls, chances are an account is going to be opened up under that potential victim's name unless they do things ahead of time to prevent that.
