Death Fraud

“Grandma! What big sunglasses you have!” In the fuzzy photo shown below, taken with a security camera at a department of motor vehicles’ office in New York City, the elderly woman is actually a man impersonating his deceased mother. Thomas Parkin (shown in a wig and big sunglasses) defrauded the U.S. government out of more than $100,000 by stealing his mother’s identity after she died. Parkin’s accomplice, the man to the right in the photo, posed as a helpful nephew.