What is "identity cloning"?

What is "identity cloning"?

Robert Siciliano (Identity Theft Expert and CEO) gives expert video advice on: Why do people clone identities and how do they choose their victims?; What are signs I might be a victim of identity cloning? and more...

Identity cloning, to me, is the scariest part of identity theft. It's really when somebody compromises your identity, and they actually live and work as you. They even pay the bills as you. They get married as you. They have kids as you. They send their kids to school as you. I mean they literally live your life somewhere else. I have a client, a woman, who I worked with not too long ago, who worked behind a cosmetics counter at a large department store for many, many years. She had a lot of different types of people coming in to buy cosmetics. Some of her clientele was actually men who were transvestites. Well, over the years, one of the men who was her client morphed into her, got plastic surgery, got a full blown sex change and eventually actually became her by taking her name and her social security number, and actually thought he was her. That is identity cloning in the truest sense. And eventually, he even got her social security number and then opened up accounts under her name as well. That is identity cloning and that's the scariest it gets.