02:31 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 20, 2006

By Bob Greene, WFAA-TV

WFAA

Audra Schmierer has had to prove she is who she is

A California woman has discovered an undocumented worker used her social security number in North Texas.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one. Her number is linked to at least 81 people in 17 states.

She filed charges when the state of Texas came after her for taxes due on a landscaping job near Haltom City.

The man said he got the illegal documents at a flea market.

ID theft is a growing crime and when you're hit it hurts.

Just ask Audra Schmierer.

"How can you actually prove that you're you?" she said.

More than 200 undocumented workers were working using her social security number.

They racked up nearly a $1 million in back taxes, including nearly $16,000 for a job right here in North Texas.

She filed a police report and investigators found one man who had used her information and told investigators he bought the fake social security card with her number at the traders' village flea market in Garland.

Selling identities is becoming a widespread problem.

"When I went to apply to that company, they told me someone else was already working under my social security," said one man, who did not want to be identified.

He says he found out this year his identity had also been stolen by a man he used to work with.

"I found out this guy was selling my birth certificate three or four times."

His situation mirrored Schmierer's.

"I had to prove to them who I was."

Now, like Schmierer, he is fighting to get his life back on track.