First Their Houses, Now Palisades, CA, Fire Victims Lose Identities

ind Firehouse.com’s full coverage of the 2025 California Fire Storm, which began Jan. 7 near Los Angeles, here.

Judy Zweig lost almost everything in the Palisades fire: her children's baby photos, her wedding album and all her expensive jewelry locked in a safe.

The 66-year-old dental hygienist planned on spending her retirement years in her Pacific Palisades home, but instead she and her husband will be dipping into their savings to rebuild from the ground up.

"We were so close to having financial freedom and the hope of having a life with so much less stress, and this not only robbed us of our past and our history, but it's robbing us of the future that we'd dreamed of," she said. "I've never done a ground-up construction project in my life, and I'll be starting this at [nearly] 70 years old. This isn't what I wanted to do with my life."

On Jan. 20, Zweig's husband, Stefan, had the day off from work and headed to the former Westside Pavillion, which is now serving as a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster recovery center. He sat down with a FEMA officer, who asked him for his Social Security number, birth date and address.

The officer then informed him that someone had already filled out a registration using his information but put down a different phone number and email address.

"It just felt like a gut punch," Stefan Zweig said. "It was so frustrating, and it was one more hoop to have to jump through to get any kind of help."

Judy Zweig said they filed a claim with FEMA stating that they were victims of identity theft and fraud; their daughter, who works as a lawyer, helped them fill out the paperwork and referred them to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. The next day, Judy Zweig took a day off work and headed to the disaster relief center. When she tried to file another registration for assistance, she was told by the FEMA officer that her address was "locked up" and that her family would have to wait until their case was resolved.

"The FEMA officer who was trying to do my intake said he had seen five cases of fraud," Judy Zweig said. "This is a rampant problem that FEMA has, and part of it is because you're allowed to sign up online, and people who want to commit fraud are getting benefits that people like us so desperately need."

Although statistics on FEMA-specific fraud cases were unavailable, agency spokesperson Brandi Richard Thompson said it's not uncommon for stolen-identity cases and fraud to take place after a natural disaster. She didn't have information on whether there had been an increase in fraud cases with the Los Angeles County wildfires compared with other disasters.

Experts say identity thieves can buy illegally obtained personal information, including Social Security numbers, and apply for FEMA funds online.

"It's not uncommon for it to happen after a disaster," Thompson said, "but I wouldn't say that it's happening with every registration."

Nearly 24 million people were victims of identity theft in 2021, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. As of Wednesday, there were more than 121,000 FEMA registrations in connection with the wildfires, Thompson said.

Once someone is aware that there's already an application on file for their address, due to fraud or any other reason, it's important for that person to reach out to FEMA directly, either by phone or at one of its disaster recovery centers, so the agency can work on resolving their case, Thompson said. They should bring identification information to the center or upload that information to their online portal.

Once that information is submitted, FEMA has 30 days to review the case and get back to the individual with an update, she said.

There are two primary FEMA grant programs available for wildfire victims — one is for up to $43,600 in housing assistance, which includes home repair, replacement, rental assistance and lodging expenses. There's another for up to $43,600 that includes assistance for personal property, medical and dental expenses as well as funeral costs and transportation.

The deadline is March 10 for registration for assistance from both FEMA and the Small Business Administration, which provides assistance for homeowners, renters, nonprofits and businesses.

Thompson said the agency is trying to strengthen its fraud detection and prevention efforts through "identity verification, data analytics, and partnerships with federal, state and local authorities." FEMA also works with law enforcement to investigate claims of fraud.

Although fraud and identity theft have been longtime problems, it's become common during the internet age, said Ruben Davila, a USC professor and attorney who has experience in litigating cases of fraudulent financial reporting. Fraudsters can easily buy someone else's personal information, including Social Security numbers, addresses and birth dates, and apply for FEMA funds online without having to show any physical identification in person.

Davila said it's been a challenge, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, for government entities to figure out how to distribute large amounts of money to the correct people in a timely manner.

"There have been enough failures that people are emboldened to go ahead and try to commit fraud. If you try and don't succeed, you're probably not going to get caught," he said. "They'd have to identify who fraudulently got the money, track and prosecute it, and the way the federal government works is that it's almost not worth the time or hassle to go after small amounts of money."

Wildfire victims who have lost their homes also no longer have a physical mailing address to receive mail or important documents, Davila said. As in the Zweigs' case, a fraudster could easily steal personal information, apply first with FEMA and put down their own email address. Then, when the real homeowner tries to apply for assistance, they have to go through more hurdles to try to prove that their identity was stolen.

"It's going to delay a rightful homeowner relief that they desperately need, and you're piling a tragedy on top of another tragedy," he said. "People think because they're stealing from the government that they aren't hurting anybody. They are hurting people at a time when people are already hurting."

Judy Zweig is concerned that her family won't qualify for certain services and donations in time because their case still hasn't been resolved. At the disaster relief center, for example, there are tables set up by the DMV, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. Zweig wasn't able to apply for any of those services because they require a valid FEMA number.

On Tuesday, her husband got a phone call from someone who identified themselves as a FEMA officer and asked for his bank account information to further verify his identity.

"We hope it was legitimately FEMA on the phone," she said. "We're still not 100% sure. It's just been a gut punch after gut punch."

Judy Zweig is still grappling with the lingering guilt she feels after she didn't save more of her family's cherished possessions in the fire. Her family has found an apartment to rent and spent about $15,000 on furniture and other essentials. Next, they'll have to reach out to architects and contractors to start the process of rebuilding their home, which she had lived in for 30 years.

On the day of the fire, Judy Zweig ran around her house, grabbing toiletries and a change of clothes for herself and her husband. She kept thinking that she'd be back the next day. She didn't think she needed to take her children's bat mitzvah album or any family photos.

"There was this collective sense of denial that it wouldn't come to my neighborhood," she said. "My kids are grieving so deeply for everything that they lost in this fire, and I feel so guilty that I'm the one who had the power to alleviate a little bit of that pain, and I didn't. And that's a guilt I'm going to carry with me forever."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.