It is definitely strange if I walk up to someone and claim to be a lawyer for their employer who needs their badge. Is the employer the victim of identity theft? Doesn’t seem convincing to me.
No, because scamming people is a crime, not just a civil dispute, so the police are involved. It's like if someone got drunk and then crashed into you. You could certainly go after the driver for damages (civil), but the police can independently go after the driver criminally (drunk/reckless driving).
>Shouldn't authorities have to prove that this random person did something wrong?
They do, but there's a gap between when someone's arrested and when the trial happens, and in that time the person can detailed, have to post bail, lose their job, etc. When it does go to trial, I suspect even an overworked public defender would be able to raise reasonable doubt for her to get free, but as the saying goes, "you can beat the rap but not the ride".
This is pretty clearly identity theft, but to admit it would throw egg on somebody's face.
the burden of proof is on the prosecutor, but the defendant stands a better chance by presenting evidence that it wasn't her.
you can purchase Fullz on most dark net marketplaces, which is the term for ID information
unlike with using credit cards or applying for credit cards, an opened bank account will tend not to alert the ID holder, although they could monitor chexsystems its not popular
passing online fraud detection simply involves opening an account from a zip code close to the target. so the user would remote into a compromised desktop nearby as there are marketplaces for that by zip code too, or be physically present there themselves if that level of OPSEC isnt needed. here it wasnt needed as law enforcement didnt subpoena facebook marketplace, they used the cashapp info
You could have bank and brokerage accounts open in your name right now, if no fraud has been triggered you won’t be the subject of an investigation. people use them for normal transactions - income destination for undocumented, normal payment flows outside view of creditors, etc
All the banks and law enforcement and FinCEN and the Department of Justice believe anti-terror anti-money laundering and know your customer laws are working simply because bank accounts are in a name.
It's not like this is a new thing, my mother had a run-in with the IRS over not reporting "income" from a place she had never worked and couldn't even find them. (IRS: if you believe it's wrong contact your employer. No, we will not provide contact information for them.) That was 40 years ago. The attempt to make things traceable probably deters some misdeeds but in most cases it just means they leave a false trail, only of use in causing trouble for innocents.