help! my friends might do something illegal! dangerous! ri

[Saner]

ya my friends family have a relative visiting them
and that relative is having trouble getting a job
(can't even find jobs that pay under the table),
so my friend was convinced to give their cousin
their social security number and their cousin
would act like their name is my friend's (my friend
doesn't work cause she's working on her education).

But like, I'm concerned this might be too risky.
Even if her cousin gets away with just the social
security number to get a job and avoids having
to show an I.D. ,
what about the taxes that come later? And if my friend later gets a job after their cousin goes back to their country, they can't use their cousin's job in their resume cause that might bring about a different description!

So ya I'm concerned about my friend and her cousin.
Cause if the cousin gets caught, what's the worst that could happen? O.O

[Nitro Vordex]

I don't think any of us really should answer something like this.
Any advice I could give, would merely be opinion, mainly because this seems quite complicated.
Simply put, this *could* be considered identity theft, or even fraud, and that usually does not turn out well. The only thing I can think of is to talk to them about this. I hope someone else could give more input, as I'm not 100% sure about this.

[Anduril]

It does seem that this leans more toward fraud. If they get caught that could mean some serious jail time. I would personally advise against trying this, btut really it's all on them if they want to risk something illegal like this.

[cel]

never a good idea to share social security numbers, especially in this day of mass networking and a pretty good consolidation of ppl's records across the globe .

It's not really worth the risk. The least the employer could do is fire the guy for basically lying on the job application itself, the worst... i don't even know. Depends on the company, i suppose.

And you have a pretty good idea just how complicated this could get in the future, so yeah, I would advise your cousins not do do that at all.

[SabZero]

Just tell them you will tell the authoroties if they do it. It's your civil duty anyway. People need to stop trying to bullshit through their lives.

[McLaughlin]

There's no law stating you have to tell the police if you know something illegal is happening/will happen/has happened.

That said, this plan sounds incredibly stupid.

[Otis_Kat]

The punishment for fraud and identity theft can be very harsh, and I doubt your friend and their cousin would be able to pull it off.

And doesn't this relative of their's have their own SSN. Illegal? If so that would make getting caught even worse for them. Also, both your friend and their cousin would be punished.

[PhotonDrop]

On 2008-02-13 12:53, Obsidian_Knight wrote:
There's no law stating you have to tell the police if you know something illegal is happening/will happen/has happened.

That said, this plan sounds incredibly stupid.



Yet if you don't, you're considered an accomplice.

...If the police find out that you knew and didn't say anything.

[Sinue_v2]

No offense, but if you're friend is stupid enough to go through with this - then they deserve everything they get.

[Otis_Kat]

On 2008-02-13 16:03, PhotonDrop wrote:


Yet if you don't, you're considered an accomplice.

...If the police find out that you knew and didn't say anything.

No, you would be considered an accessory. And it's pretty hard to prove someone knew of a crime if there was only verbal exchange, and polygraph tests aren't legal evidence in all states. One of those would only be used if there was already proof they knew anyway.

[ABDUR101]

Point being, if they're stupid enough to do it, who cares. It's incredibly stupid, I'm sure there are plenty of places that need burgers flipped and fries added to orders, if he can't find a job above that, I beleive we call that 'tough luck'.

[McLaughlin]

On 2008-02-13 16:03, PhotonDrop wrote:

On 2008-02-13 12:53, Obsidian_Knight wrote:
There's no law stating you have to tell the police if you know something illegal is happening/will happen/has happened.

That said, this plan sounds incredibly stupid.



Yet if you don't, you're considered an accomplice.

...If the police find out that you knew and didn't say anything.



This only applies is the offense has already been committed. Counselling also only applies after the fact.