LifeLock.com Promo Code

Beauty is a Beast When it Comes to ID Theft

June 10, 2009 – 11:31 am

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that phrase has never been truer than in the case of Susan Shaw. Mrs. Shaw — or as some people knew her Ms. Shaw — is a former Miss Hawaii International beauty queen. Depending on who you ask, she’s also a married woman with two children living in Oahu, Hawaii, or a single woman who is an active dater living in Manhattan Beach, California. There is one thing everyone will agree on however, she’s now been indicted on 122 counts of identity theft, forgery and money laundering and is being held in jail for $1 million bail.

Looks didn’t get her everything in this case. Mrs. Shaw was actually a very hard worker. In one case she even changed the address of one of her identity theft victims so that the mail was routed to her. The victim, confused why she was no longer getting mail deliver, fixed the reroute and then learned exactly how much Shaw had cashed in on her good name. Originally believed that the victim was one of 11, it now appears that there may be 35 more victims and an untold amount of fraud.

Shaw had full credit profiles for most of her victims. Meaning that she had everything necessary to pass herself off as one of her victims by correctly being able to recite their social security number, birthdates, mother’s maiden names and more. The only way victims would have known their identities were stolen was if they had fraud reports placed on their credit accounts. That would have alerted them when Shaw used their information to open a new line of credit or buy herself a new tiara. Unfortunately it looks like all of them didn’t which allowed Shaw to live her double life for the past few years.

Tags: beauty is a beast, beauty queen, dual identities, ex-beauty queeen, former beauty queen, fraud reports, ID theft, identity theft, miss hawaii, susan shaw