Taraji P. Henson has reportedly been dealing with the unpleasant issue of identity theft over the last few months, but the saga has finally come to a positive conclusion.
Authorities have been able to identify and track down the perpetrator of the crimes, a mother of six named Alicia Newby who had allegedly stolen multiple people’s identities, not just that of the 48-year-old Empire actress.
The Chicago woman was released on a $10,000 signature bail and is currently subjected to electronic monitoring, while she was also ordered to refrain from contacting any of the people she had targeted with her scams.
According to reports, the woman targeted not just individuals, but companies as well. PayPal was reportedly defrauded for several thousand dollars during her crimes.
While Henson was aware that something was going on, it took some time for the situation to clear up, and it all started with a report by her manager who noticed a suspicious charge to one of her cards.
She spent a total of $12,000 when it comes to Henson. However, authorities still needed time to identify who was behind the attacks and how they were performed.
After the initial purchase attempt was canceled, authorities were in contact with stores where the cards had been used.
An apartment was also rented using a false identity, and the woman had even managed to get utilities up and running in the name of someone else.
She was tearful in court, while the judge also ordered her to stay off the Internet as a whole. Reports indicate that the woman might have to face very severe punishment for her actions, given the scale of her crimes.
The Internet is split when it comes to what Newby did. Some want to praise her ingeniosity, while at the same time, people feel she could have used her intelligence to do something better.
One commenter stated: “She’s smart and dumb at the same time. That took a lot of time and effort for her to hack into emails and set everything up to the way she did. Could have been working for a company or something, able to provide for her kids legally.”
A second person explained: “The dedication it takes to pull off shit like this is amazing❗️ Sweetheart with that drive you could be rich on your own, you wouldn’t need to scam Smmfh.”
A third social media user shared: “How did she steal it is my question cause sis don’t look like cookie but Cookie Monster yeah let’s go with that.”
The woman is said to be pregnant and dealing with mental health issues.
