Criminal Impersonation: What You Need To Know

Criminal impersonation is a crime where a person assumes the identity of another person to deceive other people for gain or profit.


The law on criminal impersonation differs from state to state. In Colorado, for example, a person can be charged with criminal impersonation by pretending to be a non-existent person. This is if that person uses the false identity to commit illegal and unlawful acts for his gain and profit.

The law on criminal impersonation is different in New York. A person can’t be charged of criminal impersonation if the person assumes the identity of a fictitious character. It is only committed if a person is pretending to be someone who is a real person with the intent of benefiting or defrauding somebody from such act. For example, pretending to be the local priest, Father Robert, and asking for donations from church goers is a case of criminal impersonation.

In most states, impersonating or pretending to be a public official is a criminal offense. The public official may or may not be a real person. For example, Roger pulls over a car and shows his fake badge to the driver. He was charging the driver for speeding. Roger said that he wouldn’t arrest the driver if he pays up fifty dollars. Roger is committing criminal impersonation.

Pretending to be an employee or officer for the United States in order to get money, documents, or anything of value is committing criminal impersonation. For example, Sam pretends to be from the IRS and goes to different houses to get documents or even money then Sam is guilty of criminal Impersonation.

Recently a 13 year old girl from Farmington Connecticut was arrested for criminal impersonation. She was accused of creating a MySpace account using the name of one of her teachers in school. In the MySpace profile, the girl wrote in fictitious comments about the teacher and about some other students that were inappropriate. The girl was referred to juvenile authorities.

Punishment

Criminal Impersonation is a Class 6 Felony. As such, the punishments for criminal impersonation are the following:

1)     The court may decide to imprison the person for one to five years and/or;
2)     Jail time for not more than 12 months and shall be given a fine of up to 2500 dollars.

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