Prolific con man reportedly claimed he was an MIT professor, veteran from Boston
Jeremy Wilson’s real name is difficult to pinpoint.
He has stolen Social Security numbers and invented new identities for 25 years, finding himself charged under various aliases and in and out of prison, The New York Times reported. During the years he’s lived across the country and donned more than two dozen personas, he’s falsely stated that his roots are in Massachusetts, posing as an MIT professor and a Boston man who served in Afghanistan, according to the report.
In early January, he was arrested in New York after he was suspected of forging checks in Cambridge under the name Jeremiah Asimov-Beckingham, according to the Times. Police lured him to the station after setting up a ploy for him to steal $70,000 and a BMW.
Since his arrest, Wilson has been held at Rikers Island while he awaits trial.
“He is a con man and he knows what people don’t ask questions about,’’ his uncle, Charles Clark, told the Times. “He is one of the smartest people I ever met.’’
Read the full Times story, “The Lives and Lies of a Professional Impostor.’’
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