If I were Bradley S. Abrahams, I’d be tempted to steal someone else’s identity, too. I’m not saying I’d use someone else’s information to cash stolen checks or take out credit cards like the Naperville, Illinois police say he’s done; if I were Bradley S. Abrahams, I’d be ashamed to use my own name.

Abrahams, 32, used to own Illinois Cheer Extreme Athletics—a cheer and dance training center in Naperville–with his partner, Jason Shapiro. That’s where he had easy access to teenage girls and his partner’s identifying information, and police say Abrahams took advantage of both.

The most recent charges against him are related to a check stolen from the cheerleading center last year. The check was later cashed at a bank for $500. Police say Abrahams committed the theft and forged Shapiro’s name on the check. Police also say Abrahams used Shapiro’s personal information to open credit card accounts.

For those crimes he now faces felony charges of forgery and issuing or delivering a forged document, and three counts of ID theft, and one count each of forgery, issuing or delivering a forged document, computer fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud.

He was indicted last summer on four felony charges of criminal sexual assault, and four felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He is accused of having sex at the cheerleading center with a then-13-year-old girl in March and April 2006. Another girl subsequently came forth and said Abrahams also molested her at the center in 2006, when she was 16.

No date has been set for court appearance on the ID theft-related charges; the sexual assault cases will go to court August 27.

Just try getting someone at Tampa’s Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union to agree with P.T. Barnum’s assertion that all publicity is good publicity. They’ve been in the news twice in the last three weeks, but the news is hardly a marketer’s dream.

The first splash was a little one about their having to issue some new debit cards because the credit union discovered they—along with about a million other financial institutions–were caught up in the Heartland Payment Systems data breach,

But today’s news is big and ugly–the kind of news to make a CEO want to get stinkin’ drunk and punch Barnum in the mouth … after punching branch manager and pastor Donnell Dewitt Williams, that is.

Williams was arrested yesterday on charges of grand theft, identity theft and money laundering. He’s accused of making $400,000 in fraudulent loans to his family, friends and congregation members, and taking more than $50,000 for his trouble, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Three congregates of the House of Praise Church of God in Christ where Williams preaches were also arrested for their part in the scam. Kenta Rashawn Fabian, 23, Larry Grace, 38, and Erick Rashad Barr, 31, are accused of recruiting other parishioners to take out loans at the credit union and have been charged with identity theft and third degree grand theft.

I still don’t know the origin of the name “Cannon to the Wiz,” but I’m happy to know the ringleader of the nationwide pickpocket and ID theft ring has been arrested along with nine of his cohorts.

Leonardo Darnell Zanders, 39, was arrested in April in Detroit and has been pegged as the lead defendant in a new federal conspiracy case.

The Cannon to the Wiz is thought to have as many as 200 members, many of whom travel to events attracting large crowds where they can steal wallets.

According to the Michigan State Police, the Final Four playoffs in Detroit last April was one of their venues. And, apparently Donna Pendergast, an assistant district attorney, was one of at least seven victims they hit that night.

“I was a nervous wreck,” Pendergast said. “All I could think of was a house being bought in my name. And you would never know about that until you end up with a bill collector on your doorstep.”

The feds started looking closely at Zanders in September 2007, when he was caught trying to Fed Ex three packages containing stolen personal checks, ID, bank cards and other documents. The loot was traced to 14 victims in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Zanders got away that time, but the feds got a lot closer to him when they searched his house and found documents for 36 victims in nine states and D.C. They then searched the house of alleged ring member Clyde Austin Gray (A.K.A. “Big Head” and “Poochie”) and found documents for another 85 victims.

Investigators say Audrey Loraine Neal, 42, stole money from the elderly patients she cared for as a home health-care worker, used her children’s names to open new credit and bank accounts and used the money for pot dealing and high-living (no pun intended).

Neal no longer works at Home Support Services, her previous employer, and now collects welfare instead.

The hammer dropped when Bank of America workers became suspicious as Neal and her 17-year-old son made two to withdraw $18,000 from an account in the teenager’s name. Tracing the money backwards, they discovered the money was transferred into the account from the account of an elderly Los Angeles woman.

San Bernadino Sheriff’s investigators searched Neal’s home last Wednesday and discovered several of her victims’ credit reports and several fraudulent identification cards. They also found marijuana split into small packages, ready for sale. Though the son was carrying the pot, officials believe his mother was forcing him to sell it for her.

Officials are now using the contraband credit reports and identification in attempts to contact Neal’s many victims.

Neal’s mother was a beneficiary of the long-running scheme, receiving money from checks deposited into her grandchildren’s accounts. The accounts became overdrawn as Neal deposited bad checks that later bounced, leaving the children with ruined credit.

Neal has been charged with commercial burglary, grand theft, elder abuse, possession of stolen property, fraudulent use of an access card and furnishing marijuana to a minor for sale. She is being held on $550,000 bail.

Cars, furniture, a motorcycle and a personal watercraft were among the fraudulently-purchased big-ticket goodies Riverside, Cal. police found when they busted Miriam Macedo.

Macedo had apparently been living large until the day she drove her fraudulently-purchased, $40,000 2008 Chevy Tahoe to a Riverside motorsports dealership, and tried to fraudulently purchase two Sea-Doo watercrafts with fraudulent identification. A dealership sales associate spotted the ID for what it was and called the cops.

That’s when Macedo’s fraudulently-funded, identity theft-enriched life came to an end.

Police officers discovered that Macedo was carrying three other people’s identification, including their credit reports and fake California driver’s licenses. She had even more driver’s licenses bearing different men’s names but the same man’s picture.

The officers searched the fraudulently-financed Tahoe and found envelopes stuffed with credit card applications made out under the names printed on the fake driver’s licenses, and a receipt for $6,000 worth of new fraudulently-purchased furniture from Ashley Home Store. The receipt showed the furniture had been fraudulently financed under one of the men’s names and delivered to Macedo’s address in Moreno Valley.

Police found more loot before they even got inside the Macedo’s house: in the driveway was a fraudulently-purchased 2008 Nissan Altima, and a fraudulently-purchased Waverunner; in the garage sat a brand new, fraudulently-purchased Yamaha motorcycle. All three vehicles were registered to one of the fraudulent names.

It comes as no big surprise, but Macedo’s house was nicely furnished with $6,000 worth of fraudulently-purchased furniture from Ashley Home Store.

Could it happen that after committing so much identity theft and deception, the perpetrator completely loses track of who he is?

Rodney Roussell was arrested this week in Baton Rouge, LA after the US Secret Service and the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies spent months tracking him down.

When Rousell was arrested, investigators say they found an ID bearing his picture and someone else’s name; the same name was also found on six different credit cards.

Rousell’s cell phone was in one name; his apartment was in another. He uses yet another name as an entertainer, and his car was purchased using the Social Security number of an elderly woman from Texas. Besides all that, Rousell is a cross dresser, but was dressed as a man when he was arrested at a nightclub.

Some of Rousell’s stolen identities help him receive bank loans, and others were used to rack up roughly $90,000 in counterfeit check charges.

Rousell is also wanted on fraud and identity theft charges in Texas.

Identity thieves seldom limit themselves to just one victim, or even a single type of criminal behavior. Likewise, consumers need more than one plan of defense to protect themselves from identity theft.