Aggravated Identity Theft or Knowingly Accepting the Identity of Another Person: A.R.S. 13-2009
In Arizona, identity theft is a significant problem. It typically involves the offending individual accessing the personal information of the victim, such as bank account or social security numbers, in order to commit fraud, such as making fraudulent purchases or obtaining a loan.
In A.R.S. 13-2009, Arizona defines aggravated identity theft, a crime defined separately from standard identity theft. According to this law, violations occur for both specific identity theft and for knowingly accepting the false identity of another person.
Aggravated Identity Theft
A person commits aggravated taking the identity of another person or entity if the person knowingly takes, purchases, manufactures, records, possesses or uses any personal identifying information or entity identifying information of either:
- Three or more other persons or entities, including real or fictitious persons or entities, without the consent of the other persons or entities, with the intent to obtain or use the other persons’ or entities’ identities for any unlawful purpose or to cause loss to the persons or entities whether or not the persons or entities actually suffer any economic loss.
- Another person or entity, including a real or fictitious person or entity, without the consent of that other person or entity, with the intent to obtain or use the other person’s or entity’s identity for any unlawful purpose and causes another person or entity to suffer an economic loss of one thousand dollars or more.
- Another person, including a real or fictitious person, with the intent to obtain employment.
Moreover, proof of possession out of the regular course of business of the personal identifying information or entity identifying information of three or more other persons or entities may give rise to an inference that the personal identifying information or entity identifying information of the three or more other persons or entities was possessed for an unlawful purpose.
Knowingly Accepting the Identity of Another Person
A person commits knowingly accepting the identity of another person if the person, in hiring an employee, knowingly does both of the following:
- Accepts any personal identifying information of another person from an individual and knows that the individual is not the actual person identified by that information.
- Uses that identity information for the purpose of determining whether the individual who presented that identity information has the legal right or authorization under federal law to work in the United States as described and determined under the processes and procedures by United States law.
Penalties for Violations
A violation of either prong of A.R.S. 13-2009 is a class 3 felony. First-time offenders can be incarcerated for up to 8.75 years. This is a more severe sentence than standard identity theft, which is a class 4 felony.
Protect yourself from identity theft. For more information on how to prevent identity theft, or the steps to take if you’ve been victimized by such a crime, read our article with this useful information.
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