Source
r/NoStupidQuestionsā€¢
Dunemer

If one twin died and the other was the first to find them and stole their identity, how could you tell?

Say one high school aged twin died and the other told their parents it was them that died. Aside from personality changes would there be anything stopping the living twin from just becoming their twin.

Followup question, if it was later discovered would that have been a crime?

Idk if this counts as illegal but it is kinda unethical. I hope this doesn't break sub rules.

Posted Oct 28, 2022, 12:28 AM UTC

112
rdhightā€¢

Identical twins have different fingerprints.

3
Sweeper1985ā€¢

And usually some other differences gained in life such as moles, scars, etc. I know a pair of identical twins who are basically indistinguishable except one has a mole on her nose. That's how we told them apart at a glance.

1
DunemerOPā€¢

But considering unrelated people can steal identities and get away with it at least for a time, idk if the government would be able to make the connection that one twin has the wrong mole

1
Sweeper1985ā€¢

Yes, but using someone's documentation to steal their identity and commit financial fraud is pretty different to actually assuming and living as the person, amongst their friends and family.

1
DunemerOPā€¢

Well yeah which is why I specifically said I wasn't talking about who they are as a person. Their parents might know because they know their personality and such but if the government can't catch all people stealing identities blatantly how would they catch a twin who just starts introducing themselves as the dead twin

The fingerprints thing makes the most sense as they'd notice when the surviving twin became old enough to get ID, assuming there's a repository of baby fingerprints but Idk much about how that works

1
DunemerOPā€¢

So I assume the government has like a repository of baby fingerprints that could be referenced?

1
rdhightā€¢

No. We don't auto-fingerprint babies. You'd need to compare the prints of the living twin to prints you know were left by the dead twin.

1
DunemerOPā€¢

So then there's not a good way for those to tell who don't know them unless they just had the real fingerprints already documented and labeled?

1
rdhightā€¢

Correct. You would need some degree of access to their lives to get the prints of the dead twin.

1
[deleted]ā€¢

[deleted]

2
DunemerOPā€¢

No I'm saying if the living twin B found the dead twin A and told everyone that the dead one was actually twin B and they were twin A. No hiding the body, like faking their death and calling themselves twin A. If you don't know how they act would there be any way of like the government knowing the living twin lied about which person died?

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[deleted]ā€¢

[deleted]

3
jolygoestoschoolā€¢
  1. identity theft is a crime, so yes,

ā€‹

  1. the parents would definitely be able to know fast. Parents can pretty much always tell their twins apart. so will their friends, so it'll be found out pretty fast.
1
DunemerOPā€¢

Identify theft is a crime but is it a crime if I start introducing myself with my sisters first name?

And if not based on how the person acts, how would they tell?

1
EyeAmKnotMyshelfā€¢

Iā€™d immediately know what was up by the fact that the other sister was missing.

1
DunemerOPā€¢

But if you didn't know them personally how would you know the difference?

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EyeAmKnotMyshelfā€¢

Iā€™d never know they were a twin to begin with and hence would not factor that into my mental tab on that person. šŸ™‚

1
DunemerOPā€¢

That's exactly my point lol, so how would you "immediately know what was up"

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EyeAmKnotMyshelfā€¢

That was me under the assumption they were known prior.

However, the most unknown aspect of this entire equation is whether or not the person dealing with the twin would give a fuck about their status of a sibling usurper. I can only answer for myself in saying that I for a fact would not.

1