Identity Thief Rakes in $114K in Fake Social Security

⏱ 2 min read

A 69-year-old man from Arizona has been accused of pulling off a brazen identity theft scheme, posing as a dead man to swindle over $114,000 in Social Security benefits.

Richard Warren Ralston, who lived in Auburn, California, at the time of the crime, submitted a fake application to the Social Security Administration in September 2011, using the identity of a man who died in 1965.

For more than a decade, Ralston collected the fake benefits, concealing his true identity with the deceased man’s name, birthdate, and Social Security Number.

The SSA Office of Inspector General investigated the case, which is now being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office in California’s Eastern District.