Identity Theft Shock: Woman Discovers She’s Already Married to Stranger

While she had planned to get married at the end of October, Assia runs into an administrative tangle: another woman got married under her identity on August 10 at the town hall of Noisy-le-Sec. After filing a marriage application at the Vélizy town hall over the summer, the 21-year-old woman received a call informing her that she had already been married since August 10 according to her civil status. "I was speechless," Assia recalls. Trying to understand the background of the case, she goes to the town hall of Noisy-le-Sec. After negotiation, she obtains the name of the man she is supposed to be married to and obtains the administrative file of their union. His name is: Amine A., a man she does not know. Assia realizes that she has been the victim of identity theft, as she had lost her identity card a year ago. "However, I filed a lost declaration: I find it scandalous that this was not verified to validate the marriage," she is annoyed. "Since the municipality did not suspect fraud, it did not verify that the card was valid," deduces Le Parisien.

After this unexpected discovery, Assia decides to file a complaint with the police station. In her complaint, she explains that at the time of the marriage, she "was in Spain with my partner and my daughter." She also expresses concerns: "I don’t know if I am the victim of other damages." In parallel, she has written to the public prosecutor. Her wish to get married in the fall will no longer materialize, as the procedures in cases of identity theft are long and tedious. "First, on the civil side, the marriage must be annulled. But it will not be easy to find the impersonator, as she must have used the identity document only for the marriage and is probably not living under that name," says Marie-Camille Eck, a lawyer who works exclusively on identity theft cases. And she explains the difficulty for the victims: "They feel engulfed by the administrative monster. And they often face people who do not consider that they may be telling the truth. [...] These are cases that are not a priority for the police or the justice system, because the courts are overloaded. As a result, there is real impunity for the scammers."