The video opens with two Boston residents, both named Lisa White, recounting how an identity thief stole their personal information, used their driver’s license and Social Security numbers to open credit accounts, and caused $10,000–$12,000 in financial damage each. Their stories highlight the emotional toll—fear, insecurity, and loss of personal identity. The program then introduces convicted identity thief James Ronaldo Jackson, who describes his “charming” phone‑scamming technique, the breadth of his crimes (approximately $5 million stolen from high‑profile individuals and CEOs), and how he exploits the “dumb” system that readily hands over Social Security numbers, medical data, and even school grades. Jackson acknowledges that modern defenses such as voice‑biometrics could stop him, but notes many companies still lack such safeguards. Finally, chief security analyst Robert Siciliano offers concrete protection steps: render the Social Security number “useless” by placing fraud alerts or credit freezes, use free services from credit bureaus (90‑day alerts) or OneYou.com, and adopt voice‑biometric authentication where available. The segment blends victim testimony, criminal confession, and expert advice to illustrate the mechanics of identity theft and practical mitigation strategies.
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Potential victims' names. Names are very important. Sometimes you can be targeted just because you have a common name. Joining us from Boston is Lisa White.
And sitting next to her is Lisa White. Both are victims of the same identity thief, by the way, in the Boston area. Oh boy. Let's start with Lisa White, number 1.
On the left.
What do you know about— it was a woman who stole your identity, correct?
Yes.
What do you know about her?
Yes. Uh, pretty much nothing. She got a hold of my driver's license number and my Social Security number, and she had my address, even my phone number, and she went out to different stores and she established credit for the day.
How much financial damage did she do to you? How much did she get you for?
$12,000.
Oh my gosh. Now, Lisa on the right, Lisa White on the right, Was it the same person who went after you?
I think so, but I'm not sure.
And simply because your name is Lisa White?
Yes.
That is creepy. How much did she get you for?
Just over $10,000.
Creepy is the operative word here. It would feel very, very weird to have somebody pretend— out there on the town pretending like they're me. What was that like for you when you realized that there was somebody basically masquerading as Lisa White on the right?
It's terrible. You don't want to answer your phone. You have a fear that she's gone out there and used your credit again. You feel very insecure about who you are as a person. You work really hard at your credit and your identity itself, and in one day she did so much damage that It's really hard to feel good about yourself.
That's for sure. But thank you all for telling these stories. It's such important information. When we come back though, let's talk to a man who stole over $5 million from some of the most famous people in our country. We'll get it right from the thieves' mouths how they do this.
Steven Spielberg.
Yeah, we are back with M&J Investigates, identity theft this time with chief security analyst For 1usecurity.com, Robert Siciliano.
And joining us now is a man who has stolen the identities of hundreds of people, including Tom Cru— How do you steal Tom Cruise's identity? Steven Spielberg and Mel Gibson. He calls himself the founding father of identity theft. James Ronaldo Jackson is joining us.
James, thanks for coming in.
I gotta say, you're a charming guy with a bad, bad history, but I can see why you're even talking to us. You're very charming, you're very, you know, garrulous, and that really worked when you got on the phone with companies and certain people and tried to get people's information.
Absolutely, it works. It's incredible how it works. What happens this day and age is, especially due to the information age that we're in, identity theft can occur simply by me pretending to be you at any given cost. And all I've got to do is talk about the weather to the people on the other end of the phone. They'll give me everything.
They'll cough up— if you pretend to be me, they'll cough up my Social Security number if you're sweet to them?
Well, to be totally honest with you, not only your Social Security number, but your medical background information as well, and even your the grades that you made back when you were in grade school and college.
Why do you think that is? People just— you're just so charming and so good at what you do.
Well, it's not that I am good. It's just that the system is dumb.
Wow. How much money do you think you've ripped off in your lifetime?
Only about $5 million or so.
That's all?
That's it.
You spent time in prison.
Sure I did. But it's now time to help people with this problem and educate them.
You're never going to do another illegal activity again?
By no means at all. I do that. Look, let's do it, Julia. Hey, look, I'm enjoying this, okay?
What's your Social Security number? But you took on the identity of CEO— major people, Fortune 500 CEOs and presidents, like the president of Wendy's and Coca-Cola. But if they can't protect themselves, how can I?
Simple. All you've got to do to protect yourself is understand and realize that your Social Security number That is the matter at hand. So what's important for you to do is actually understand that your Social Security number is the key to the kingdom.
The gateway.
Make it useless.
Make—
how do you make it useless?
You gotta make it useless. I mean, that's the key right now. As long as your Social Security number is used to open up all credit, you wanna make it useless to the thieves. And you do that by either freezing it or putting a fraud alert on it. If you put a fraud alert on it, then anytime anybody tries to open up a new account under your name, then you are contacted. Contacted directly before that account is opened.
How do I get a fraud alert?
Well, there's a number of ways you can do it. You can go to the credit bureaus and you can do it for free, but it expires after 90 days. Or you go online to OneYou.com, and that's what we do. We make sure that no one can open up new accounts under your name without your authorization.
If— now, would those things be able to stop you?
Well, actually, they would. And not only are the individuals as far as their information is concerned, a big problem. But you do have major industry. Major industry has a huge problem, and the key to major industry is the voice biometrics, which authenticates a caller calling into a bank or financial institution or insurance company. That defeats me every time.
Voice biometrics. So biometrics. Biometrics. So when I— so this machine would know that it's me talking.
It will authenticate your call. That's the The only thing that would have defeated me and me being here—
Those are the names of companies though.
Exactly, because the companies are responsible as well for allowing our information to seep out the way it does.
How advanced is the technology?
Oh, the technology is superb.
Okay, so we can start using this ourselves soon.
Well, companies and corporations need to do this because if they don't, what's gonna happen is identity thieves are going to tear them Whole list.
I want to find out more information about you and your tactics and some of the things you did, so we're going to have to ask you and Robert to go into our green room and give a little bit more information for our mnjshow.com website. Uh, you can find out a lot more details on that. We can go and really flush this story out. Thank you guys for joining us.
