Stolen identity victim set to sue impostor 16 years after foiled dream to enrol in university in Shandong.
Chen Chunxiu of Guanxian county, Shandong province, has decided to file a lawsuit against a woman who was admitted into university 16 years ago by stealing Chen’s identity, according to a statement from Chen.
“To deal with the impostor in this case, I will use the law to defend my legal rights and interests,” Chen said in the statement on Wednesday.
The alleged impostor, also surnamed Chen, is also from Guanxian and was suspended from her job at a community office in the county on June 11, one day after a joint investigative team consisting of officials from the county’s commission for discipline inspection and supervision, public security and education was launched.
Chen, now 36, took the national college entrance examination in 2004 but didn’t receive an enrolment notice from any college, even though her score was above the admission line.
Thinking she had failed the college entrance examination, she travelled to other cities to seek employment, including work as a waitress.
Chen discovered the identity theft when she was filling in forms for an adult education school on May 21 on the website of the China Higher Education Student Information and Career Centre, an authoritative institution directly under the Ministry of Education.
She discovered that a woman using her ID number and name had been admitted to the International Economics and Trade department of Shandong University of Technology in 2004, the department and school she had applied to 16 years ago.
The ID number and name were the same, but the photo was not.
The woman graduated in 2007. Chen contacted the university, which has sent staff workers to investigate.
The alleged impostor admitted she took Chen’s place to study at the university, and it was her aunt who spent 2,000 yuan (RM1,207) to pay an agency for Chen’s identity materials needed for admission, according to an explanation the suspect wrote on May 26.