Sarah Rosenthal from CrimeReads reports: In the introduction of debut author Axton Betz-Hamilton’s memoir The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets and Stolen Identity, a college-age Betz-Hamilton receives a credit report in the mail that reveals a shocking secret: despite never having had a credit card, her credit score is 380… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!
The first line of credit under Betz-Hamilton’s name had been opened when she was eleven. Her confusion morphs into horror as she realizes her report also contains several bank and collection agency notices. Betz-Hamilton’s revelation that her identity has been stolen comes after a childhood of paranoia: her parents’ identities had also been stolen years before. The police never found the culprit.
Identity theft and fraud lay at the heart of Betz-Hamilton’s memoir. It’s a true crime story that bleeds into every moment of her childhood and adulthood, one with a slow burn to a shocking conclusion. There’s also a larger question she poses: how can someone form an identity in adulthood when someone has stolen theirs before they even knew what a credit score was? And as a reader, I found it impossible to avoid asking myself: why aren’t more people sharing their own identity theft stories in the era of scammers and true crime?
Identity theft and fraud have become far more common over the past few decades, but the abstract nature of stealing someone’s identity is tricky to portray in writing. Frauds and scams, at times, lend themselves more readily to true crime, since by their very definition they involve drama and tension—a thief steals or forges something to get what they want.
One would think that identity theft as a narrative would swiftly gain popularity in the true crime boom over the past five years. Especially since true crime’s popularity as a genre has also intersected with the 2016 election and Trump’s inauguration, when the subject of the successful, renegade con man “sticking it to the system” while defrauding American voters seemed to explode all over the media. If a fraudulent businessman could win the presidency, what other scams have we as Americans fallen for?
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