We got into a little shuffle. It's hard to prove to somebody who don't know you who you are. Feakes had to call in his local sheriff to vouch for his identity. He says local law enforcment took his case seriously, but few others did. Feakes says he faced hostility from credit agencies, and indifference from many law enforcement agencies, including an FBI agent he asked for help.
Experts say law enforcement is often unwilling or unprepared to investigate identity theft.
Craig Welken is FBI agent in charge in Fargo. He says no statistics are kept on identity theft. He says it's often seen as a paper crime not worth the effort and expense it takes to investigate. The big problem is it's very difficult to find these people because they frequently change the identies they have very quickly. They may use your identity for a period of time and discarded it.