(FOX 2) – Kelli Bryant, who was taken into custody more than a year ago after her children were found living by themselves in squalor in a Pontiac apartment, is scheduled to be sentenced for a separate case on Thursday.
Bryant pleaded no contest to three counts of welfare fraud in December. She was charged shortly after her arrest on counts of child abuse.
Her sentencing is scheduled for early afternoon on Thursday.
The backstory:
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office took Bryant into custody after deputies were called to the residence to perform a welfare check.
The landlord told police he had not heard from her in months and was worried something had happened. When police arrived, they found a home full of garbage, along with mold and human waste.
Inside was a 15-year-old boy and two girls, 12 and 13. The boy told police they had been living at the home for years and rarely left…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.