A thief by any other name
Career criminal steals identity of those with his name; his victims include former Dalia Dippolito juror
He’s an identity thief who uses variations of the same name — his own.
For at least 20 years, and perhaps longer, this has been bad news for anyone out there named Steve Shaw.
The culprit’s real name is Steven Douglas Shaw, 60. Court records show he’s been convicted or accused of stealing the IDs of people with his exact name from Florida to Massachusetts.
He’s been known to also use variations of the same moniker, such as Stephen, or Steve Shaws with different middle names.
One of his longtime victims is Stephen Frank Shaw, 69, of West Boynton. He’s a law-abiding citizen and grandfather who served on the jury in Dalia Dippolito’s 2016 trial.
Shaw, a retired AT&T company manager, says he had no doubt the murder-for-hire schemer tried to kill her newlywed husband. But he never expected to be part of his own truth-is-stranger-than-fiction drama.
Three years ago, Shaw learned the felon used his identity to rent a car in Orange County and was booked for a grand theft charge under the West Boynton man’s name. Back in 2000, the same man used his ID to get a $10,000 from a Melbourne credit union. And there have been other ripoffs.
“When’s it going to stop?” asks Shaw, the ex-juror. “He’s fearless. And he’s still got my ID in his possession.”
A career identity thief
Public records show that Steven Douglas Shaw’s criminal history is extensive:
He has been charged with nearly three dozen offenses in Florida over the past 31 years, in Broward, Escambia, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties. The charges include two identity theft cases, along with numerous counts of check fraud and grand theft. He has served two state prison stints of about two years each, while the other charges either were dropped or resolved with probation sentences.
He is very particular when it comes to misrepresenting himself in banks, car dealers and stores — he uses his name, but always a different Steve Shaw’s Social Security number. Identity fraud experts say this is a common and successful approach by identity thieves.
His probation ended last month in an Escambia County case that began a dozen years ago. Shaw initially pleaded no contest in 2007 to identity theft and defrauding a Pensacola bank on Dec. 31, 2003, when he used the credentials of a Steven Douglas Shaw from Massachusetts to obtain a credit card. He racked up more than $13,000 in purchases, was caught, got sentenced to five years of probation, skipped town and was re-arrested in 2016 for violating probation.
Ready to make amends
Steven Douglas Shaw now lives in Sanford, in Seminole County. Reached on his cellphone, he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he wished to make up for his transgressions.
“For anyone who I have hurt or anything I have done to hurt someone, I will do whatever I can do to fix what I can fix,” he said. “I will do what needs to be done to help.”
He then said he wanted to end the interview and hung up.
Escambia County court records show that as part of his 2007 plea deal, the felon was ordered to write apology letters to BB&T bank and the Massachusetts victim, and pay back what he stole. The files do not indicate whether he ever sent those letters.
Records show that since 2016, Steven Douglas Shaw had been making $100 monthly payments toward his debt, a requirement of a three-year probation sentence.
Finally bringing an end to the criminal case, Circuit Judge Jan Shackelford released Steven Douglas Shaw from probation. He also was ordered to pay civil liens of $11,175 to satisfy his remaining obligations to the bank, and $2,997 to Lowe’s home improvement store, to resolve still another long outstanding fraud case there.
The Escambia County public defender who handled the matter said he was not permitted by office policy to comment.
Credit threatened
As one of Steven Douglas Shaw’s former victims, Stephen Frank Shaw received a courtesy notice two weeks ago that the felon’s probation had ended.
The ex-juror says he’s been hurt by his namesake thief for two decades, pointing to binders full of credit investigations. He says he found out it was widespread in 2004, when the James City County Police Department in Virthe ginia contacted him. That agency then informed him that several Steve Shaws were victims.
Some evidence of this is found in court files.
In 2007, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrested Steven Douglas Shaw on a grand theft charge based on an allegation he illegally bought a new Chrysler Pacifica priced at $49,000.
He took the keys using the identity of a Steven Shaw from Navarre, in Florida’s Panhandle, according to an arrest report. The car dealer repossessed the Pacifica and told police that the felon later called to say “he had made a mistake using the other man’s information, and he wanted to make it right and not get the police involved.”
Typical for ID crooks
It is common for identity thieves to steal identifications from people who share their names, says Robert Siciliano, a Boston-based security expert and author who runs a website called Safr.me.
“If you want to be a successful identity thief, that’s the way to go,” he said. “It’s the easiest way to engage in new account fraud because you already have established birth certificates, Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, with victims’ information. And so variations of Steven, Stephen, Steve … all of those ‘also known as’ are effective.”
Siciliano said the identity thieves aren’t likely to stop “unless the victims have gone to extensive lengths to protect themselves and notify various federal agencies.”
The website IdentityHawk.com reports that common names like John Smith are typical targets of identity thieves. But any name can be at risk. The website notes, “It’s common for people with good credit to have their credit ratings sullied by people with the same name who don’t manage their credit well.”
According to the 2018 Javelin Strategy & Research Identity Fraud Study, 16.7 million U.S. consumers were victims of identity theft, up 8% from the prior year. About $16.8 billion was stolen, the report said.
Clearing his name
Stephen Frank Shaw became a victim again in 2015.
The felon had used a Virginia driver’s license with the ex-juror’s ID to rent a Lincoln Navigator from a Budget car rental location by the Orlando airport, according to a Maitland Police Department arrest report.
Steven Douglas Shaw was charged with grand theft auto and booked under Stephen Frank Shaw’s birth date and identity.
The victim said he found out about this nearly a year after it happened, when a credit agency sent him a booking alert.
By that point, unbeknownst to the ex-juror, the Orange County State Attorney’s Office had already decided not to prosecute the felon. The felon’s lawyer had filed a motion to throw out the case because a speedy trial deadline had expired.
This closed case remains listed on the Orange County Clerk of Court’s website under the name of the victim, Stephen Frank Shaw, with his birthday, March 12, 1950.
At one point, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs notified him that his disability benefits could be suspended because he was listed as an Orange County Jail inmate.
“You can imagine how shocked I was,” said Shaw, who was injured parachuting during his Army service.
He filed an identity theft report with the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office and the VA cleared him.
Shaw also appeared before an Orange County judge on April 3 for an identity hearing. He provided fingerprints and proof that he is not the person who was arrested by Maitland police.
On May 21, Circuit Judge John Marshall Kest signed an order that Shaw “is not connected to this case in anyway.”
Police investigate
But Shaw says he remains frustrated because Maitland didn’t charge the felon with identity theft. He said the police department’s legal adviser told him that a three-year time limit to file a charge had run out.
“What we have is a career felon who stole my identity, that information was brought to the police department’s attention, they confirmed that by the way, did nothing about it,” said Shaw. “Why not go and do the right thing and arrest this person, file charges for the identity theft?”
Maitland conducted an internal investigation this year in response to Shaw’s complaint. A May 24 department memo notes, “poor communication by members of our Agency led to misunderstandings and frustration.”
Lt. Louis Y. Grindle, in an email Tuesday to the Sun Sentinel, wrote that the agency “was limited in our ability to comply with all of Mr. Shaw’s requests due to jurisdictional and legal issues.”
The memo states that all agency reports and Florida Department of Law Enforcement files were changed to show that the person arrested July 31, 2015, for stealing the Lincoln was Steven Douglas Shaw, born on June 26, 1959.
The memo also noted, “The Maitland Police Department has corrected the items within their control in regards to this matter.” The agency also implemented new procedures for identity theft investigations.
Stephen Frank Shaw says he’s disappointed he can’t get justice.
“At least,” he said, “I get credit for positive changes in this particular police department, albeit at my expense.”