“Their throats are open tombs; their tongues practice deceit” (Romans 3:13). Snakes have been a universal symbol of fraud in literature since "The Fall", when God transformed Satan into a seductive serpent and "cursed" Satan to slide "on [his] belly" for all eternity to his deception (Dante uses snakes in his epic poem, Inferno, to bind nature fraudulent). thieves to their punishment in the seventh bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell. The snakes metaphorically slipped through time and poured out, taking on new guises as deceivers in society. In 2005, they revealed a new face, Olatunji Oluwatosin, an identity thief. From his base in Los Angeles, Olatunji Oluwatosin stole private information, such as credit card numbers, of hundreds of American citizens from the national ChoicePoint database, using the deceptive arts of the snake, but his crimes did not were not detected at first. As he progressed, people became aware of his crimes, which ultimately led to his capture. Oluwatosin's crime shows the complex relationship between modern identity thieves and the serpentine thieves of Dante's Inferno. By avoiding detection and transformation, Oluwatosin effectively mutated into a serpent until an eventual punishment that embraces Dante's contrapasso ideal. Identity thieves avoid detection by presenting the face of an honest man. Olatunji Oluwatosin could persist in his crime as long as he maintained a different personality. However, Los Angeles resident James Garrett reported to police that a credit card "in his name had been redirected to another address," an act that sparked Oluwatosin's (O'Harrow) lawsuit. by Detective Duane Decker. During his investigation, Detective Decker realized that a client...... middle of paper...... "Defendant in Major Identity Theft Case Found Guilty ." Internet Week. February 17, 2005. October 24, 2007. .Mimoso, Michael S. “The choice is clear for this privacy officer: Carol DiBattiste of ChoicePoint. » TechTarget. April 14, 2006. October 24, 2007. .O'Harrow Jr., Robert. “The ChoicePoint data cache has become a powder keg. » The Washington Post. March 5, 2005. October 24, 2007. .The New English Bible; The New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961. Print, United States of America. Federal Bureau of Investigation. By the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Internet. November 4. 2010. .