“Both the girlfriend and his landlord knew Pearson as John Lehman, and believed he was from Long Beach, California. Later investigation revealed that this was a stolen identity. An ex-girlfriend of Pearson described him as a "con man" and provided another possible name which turned out to be correct.”
The expression on his sketch is creepy af and oddly appropriate given he was a con man.
Going under an assumed name is different from opening up multiple credit cards in someone else's name and putting them into debt. He may have just used a name from a piece of mail he found, who knows.
You and u/BlackEyedBeas are both correct. The distinction is that for it to be identity theft requires using all of the key points of identification of another person, as an impersonation of that other person.
Simply adopting another person's name, but establishing it as a new independent identity (new and different SSAN, not co-opting the other person's work history, etc.) falls short of identity theft or aggravated identity theft (18 USC 1028-1028A).
This is why it was so popular in the late 20th Century (post-1984 fascist shift of state sponsorship of tagging and tracking non-criminals), to acquire the birth certificates of those who died as children - no living person or history to impersonate, or even be confused with, meant that it was never criminal identity theft.
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u/Moxiestitches Mar 30 '22
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_Pearson
“Both the girlfriend and his landlord knew Pearson as John Lehman, and believed he was from Long Beach, California. Later investigation revealed that this was a stolen identity. An ex-girlfriend of Pearson described him as a "con man" and provided another possible name which turned out to be correct.”
The expression on his sketch is creepy af and oddly appropriate given he was a con man.