Nurse Steals Patients’ Identities in Scheme to Obtain Student Loans

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:12:00 GMT

Risha Renee Shaw — who graduated in November 2008 as a licensed practical nurse from Keiser Career College — paid her way through school by fraudulently obtaining up to $18,000 in student loans, reports the St. Petersburg Times (“Student Loan Scheme Stole IDs of Elderly, Police Say,” March 20, 2009).

Arrested last Friday by St. Petersburg police, the 30-year-old Shaw was charged with two counts each of exploitation of the elderly and identity theft, and is currently being held at the Pinellas County Jail on a $40,000 bond.

Apparently, police say, Shaw exploited her relationship as a nurse with two of her patients and used their identities to obtain two loans from Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student loan provider. Victims included an unnamed 83-year-old man and 80-year old Helga Holsten, who died in September of last year.

Bob Andelman, Holsten’s son-in-law, was shocked that someone would steal Holsten’s identity to obtain a loan. He was even more shocked, according to the St. Petersburg Times, at how poorly executed the fraud was.

“They put a picture of a young blond woman onto my mother-in-law’s photo ID,” Andelman said. “But they left all the other information the same,” including the birth year which still read 1928.

Besides how shoddily the fraud was executed, Andelman was surprised that no one spotted the fraud, despite inconsistencies with the photo ID and other documentation.

“All of the document work was incredibly sloppy,” Andelman said. “My mother-in-law’s name was written differently on every piece of paper,” he said. Anyone could have spotted that something was wrong with the applications, or almost anyone, he speculated.

Sallie Mae finally removed the loan from his mother-in-law’s credit report, Adelman said, after several months of working with the lender to resolve the situation.

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Student Loan Blog : Sallie Mae, Pinellas County Jail

Nurse Steals Patients’ Identities in Scheme to Obtain Student Loans