Identity Theft and Fraud Can Be Devastating. Here’s How to Avoid It

A federal judge called the case “Kafkaesque.” In January 2025, Matthew David Keirans, 59, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on federal charges of aggravated identity theft and making false statements. But this was no ordinary identity theft case: Keirans had so thoroughly assumed the identity of his victim, William Woods, whom he’d met years earlier, that Woods was accused of and charged with taking his identity. Woods had told his bank that an impostor was racking up debt in his name (Keirans had obtained loans worth about $250,000), so the police called Keirans, who sent fake ID documents that convinced the police that he was Woods, and the real Woods was arrested for fraud. Later, when Woods insisted that he was the real Woods, a disbelieving judge sent him to a psychiatric hospital. CONTINUE