Woman Allegedly Lived Under 74 Aliases, Targeted Hollywood

Living a double life seems like it would be challenging enough, but that’s child’s play compared to what one California identity theft suspect is believed to have accomplished. Cathryn Parker, 72, was arrested in March when she was stopped for a traffic violation and gave a law enforcement officer a fake name. Turns out, Parker is under investigation for stealing multiple identities and living under at least 74 aliases, according to the Associated Press.

Parker is accused of stealing seven identities, most of whom are Hollywood film production staffers. Investigators discovered that Parker’s home and utilities services were registered under false names, and Parker had also opened fraudulent credit card accounts with victims’ information. Investigators say she is suspected of committing crimes dating back to 2010.

As of April 17, Parker was in federal custody in Northern California, where she was wanted for violating probation, the AP reported. She had been convicted of mail fraud in 2000.

While Parker’s high number of identities is uncommon, her alleged crime is not. Identity theft affects millions of Americans each year. Victims of identity theft often suffer damage to their credit standings and finances, and the longer it goes undetected, the more costly and time-consuming the recovery can become.

Preventing identity theft is a huge part of this problem — it’s practically impossible to do. Even consumers who take the best preventative measures, like never storing sensitive data online and rarely sharing personally identifiable information, may still have their data stolen in a cyberattack on a company that rightfully has that information (for example, the Anthem data breach).

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Credit monitoring can be extremely helpful in stopping a situation like a thief opening a fraudulent credit card account in your name. You can get your credit report summary for free, updated every month on Credit.com, to watch for changes that you didn’t authorize. In addition to that, the most effective form of protection is monitoring your identity from as many angles as possible, including public records and information on the Internet. Whether you do it yourself or pay for an identity theft protection service, the most important thing is to act quickly when you notice something is wrong, in order to prevent extensive damage to your credit and financial well-being.