[encumeterz]

It appears that the courts are focusing on the fundamental criminal law rule that intent to defraud is a prerequisite to liability for fraud. Many illegals pay persons to find them jobs and get them papers. Not familiar with how Americans get Social Security numbers, they believe that it is OK for an agent to go to the Government and get the card for them. Often, the illegals pay taxes -- certainly withholding taxes -- to that Social Security number, and it may be years before they discover that what they were doing was wrong (and worse, they got no credit for all of those Social Security taxes they paid). Who is harmed? The lender -- in the Colorado case, a car dealer -- says they are the victim because they lent money to someone whose credit rating they could not validate. However, lenders have the ability to tap into a special Government website where they can check the legitimacy of a SSN, and check it against the name. The lender's failure to do that is there own fault.