Report Identity Theft: Wrong First Stop Jailed Man 428 Days

Picture the most responsible thing you could do if you found out someone was using your name. You would report identity theft to your bank, in person, with your ID in your hand. That is exactly what William Woods did in Los Angeles in 2019. It cost him 428 days in county jail.

There is an order to these calls. Most people do them backwards, and honestly, who could blame them? Nobody hands you a flowchart on the worst day of your year. So let's build one together, starting with what went wrong for Woods.

Report Identity Theft the Way Most People Do, and See What Happens

Woods was homeless in 2019 when he learned someone was running up debt in his name. He walked into a bank with his real ID and his real Social Security card. The bank manager asked him security questions, and he did not answer them correctly. The manager called the police.

Meanwhile, the actual thief was calling the police too. He said he had never given anyone permission to touch those accounts. He then faxed over fake identification papers. To the people making decisions, one man looked confused and worn down. The other sounded calm and had paperwork.

The paperwork won. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, which lists his case, Woods was arrested. CBS News covered the case in April 2024.

What Woods's case shows: genuine identification did not outweigh security answers he could not provide and false documents sent by the thief.

Here is the part that should make your stomach drop. Woods kept insisting he was who he said he was. A judge found him mentally incompetent to stand trial and sent him to a psychiatric hospital, where he received psychotropic medication (drugs that change how the brain works). Eventually he pleaded no contest and was released for time served. His correct answer, repeated over and over, was treated as a symptom.

How to report identity theft without walking into a trap

Woods did not do anything foolish. He did what feels logical: find a person, show your papers, explain. The trouble is that a branch employee is not trained to investigate anything. Their job is to protect the bank. If you cannot pass their questions in the moment, you look exactly like the fraudster they were warned about.

He is also not alone. In 2019, a woman in Speedway, Indiana, spent four days in jail after a thief used her stolen ID to take a car. She had called the police herself to clear her name. She was arrested on the warrant anyway. Different city, same shape: the victim shows up, and the system finds a name that matches a record.

Why fraud departments come before branch counters

A company's fraud department is a different animal from a front desk. It works from account records, not from how you look on a stressful afternoon. It can freeze a card, lock an account and open a case file, all without anyone deciding whether you seem believable. That is why the first call goes to the number printed on the back of your card or on your statement, not to whoever is standing nearest. This article is part of a series, start with Facial St Louis One Number Jailed Wrong Man 17 Months.

---

What Is Criminal Identity Theft, and Why Does a Clean Credit Report Not Prove You Are Safe?

Criminal identity theft is when a thief gives your name to a police officer during an arrest or an investigation. That is the direct answer. The thief may show a stolen driver's license, or may simply say your name out loud. Either way, the record that gets created belongs to you, and your credit file will never show it.

Most of us picture identity theft as money trouble: a fraudulent card, a loan you never took, a stack of bills. That is the version on the news and in the ads. It is the kind that shows up in a credit report. It is real, but it is only half the picture.

The criminal version does not show up there at all. Victims often find out when a routine traffic stop ends in handcuffs over a warrant they never knew about. Or a job offer disappears after a background check turns up an arrest that was never theirs. Nobody tells you. There is no alert. One day the paperwork just disagrees with you.

Personal details a thief hands to police

Why does this work? Because a police database mostly repeats whatever it was told first. When an arrested person gives a name, that name goes into the file as if it were fact. The next officer to run it inherits the mistake. Nobody along the way is paid to ask, "Wait, is this really him?"

That is also why the bank's error and the police's error stack on top of each other. The bank trusted the confident voice. The police trusted the bank. Each step made the false story a little more official. (Confidence is very persuasive. It is not the same thing as being right.)

---

The Safer Way to Report Identity Theft: Call Order, Step by Step

Now the practical part. Nothing here replaces advice from a lawyer or your state's official guidance. But the outline below matches what the checklists from government offices and victim-help groups describe. The main change from what most people do is simple: start with the paper trail, not the person.

Step	Common mistake	Safer move
First contact	Walking into a branch to report identity theft in person	Call the fraud department using the number on your card or statement
Credit protection	Waiting to see if the fraud stops	Ask a credit bureau to place a fraud alert, which is free
Proof	Relying on memory and phone calls	Keep a written log and get your credit report from each bureau
Police	Reporting first, with no documents	File a police report after you have your account records and a written identity theft report

Contact the companies holding your accounts

Step one: contact the fraud department of each company where you see fraudulent charges or accounts you do not recognize. Use the phone number from a real card or statement, not one from a text message or an email. Ask them to close or freeze the account and to note in writing that it is fraud. Write down the date, the name and a reference number.

Step two: put a fraud alert on your credit. You ask one of the three credit bureaus, and by law that bureau tells the other two. A fraud alert asks lenders to check that it is really you before opening new credit. A credit freeze goes further and blocks new accounts entirely. Both are free.

Step three: get your credit report from each bureau and read every line. Circle anything you do not recognize. This is your evidence, and it is much stronger than your word alone.

Information police need from you

Step four: file a report with the Federal Trade Commission at IdentityTheft.gov. It walks you through the details and produces an official identity theft report. If the scam happened online, the FBI runs a place to report internet crimes, too. Previously in this series: Facial Recognition Florida Dad Jailed For Strangers Crime.

Step five: only now go to the police. Bring your ID, your credit report, the fraud department's reference numbers and the FTC report. Some companies will ask for a copy of the police report before they clear an account. You are not showing up to be believed on faith. You are showing up with a folder.

Look at what changed. In the Woods case, the first thing on the table was a man's word against a caller's. Here, the first thing on the table is paper that shows fraud on specific accounts. It is much harder for a false story to beat a file with dates and reference numbers.

Try one more thought experiment. Say you are stopped at the counter, and the questions stump you. Nothing forces you to keep going. You can ask for the fraud department's number, step outside and make the call. If an employee says they are calling the police, stay calm, keep your documents on you, and say plainly that you are there to report identity theft and that you want it recorded. Then ask for a copy of whatever they write down. Small stuff, but it leaves a trail.

---

Where to Report Identity Theft When the Record Is Criminal: Alert Yourself Early

If you suspect a criminal record exists in your name, the steps change. You are not just protecting your credit. You are trying to fix what courts and police departments believe about you. The Identity Theft Resource Center explains the process for victims. The California Attorney General also publishes a victim checklist. Rules vary by state, so read the version for yours.

In California, for example, victims can petition a court for a Judicial Finding of Factual Innocence, and they can ask to expunge (wipe from the public file) the arrest record. The procedures require court paperwork and requests to each agency that holds the false record. If you miss a step, you may not get the help you need. And the burden is yours: you must ask each agency to correct its own records, one jurisdiction at a time, because no single office owns the problem.

Consumer rights when a false record follows you

One thing worth knowing as a consumer: background check companies fall under credit reporting rules, which means you can request a copy of what they hold on you and dispute what is wrong. Requesting your own criminal records before an employer does can catch a mistake early. Consider it a kind of early-warning system.

Keep every letter and every reference number in one folder, paper or digital. Ask agencies to confirm corrections in writing. Some victims carry a copy of their court order with them, just in case an officer runs their name.

---

When a Faulty Face Match Makes a Second Mistake

At CaraComp, we spend our days studying how faces get compared to records, so one more case belongs here. It shows the same pattern with a computer in the middle.

In January 2020, Robert Williams was arrested in front of his family in Detroit and held for about 30 hours. As the ACLU of Michigan describes it, the trigger was facial recognition software that matched security footage to his driver's license photo. Here is the twist: the software ranked him as only the ninth-best match. Then detectives put an expired license photo of his into a photo lineup shown to a loss-prevention contractor who had not even been at the scene. He later settled his case, which Michigan Public covered in 2024.

Think of it like a search engine that returns ten names, and someone decides the ninth one is the answer. A face match is a lead, not a verdict. Nobody checked where Williams was that day. Same lesson as Woods: the machine or the record spoke first, and the human being was expected to prove a negative afterward. Up next: Report Identity Theft Wrong First Stop Jailed Man 428 Days.

It comes back to the same question. Who tells the system your story first, and what paper is standing behind it?

So, back to the question from the start. If this were happening to you tonight, would you know where to look first? Here is the answer worth remembering: the number on the back of your card. William Woods walked into a room and asked strangers to believe him. The order of calls exists so that you never have to.

report identity theft: Frequently Asked Questions