History Main / FakeIdentityBaggage

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "And Here's to You, Mrs. Azrael", an [[MamaBear angry mother]] [[SickbedSlaying kills a comatose teen]] whom she blames for the drunken car crash that killed her daughter. However, Hawkes reveals to the mother that the girl she killed was her own daughter, who exploited the fact she looked almost exactly like the girl who died in the crash to use her ID to enter a bar because she was still legally underage and didn't switch back the [=IDs=] before having the crash. The mother is taken away by the cops [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone as she has a breakdown over having killed her own daughter.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': In "The Spider Slayer", [[JerkJock Flash Thompson]] in a misguided attempt to stick up for Spider-Man dresses up as the Web-Slinger and tries to intimidate Peter Parker to make him stop taking pictures of Spider-Man that Jameson will use to slander his hero. Unfortunately for Flash, this results in him being captured by Spencer Smythe who mistakes him for the real Spider-Man. After rescuing Flash, Spider-Man tells Flash "Now you know what kind of trouble this costume attracts."

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Subverted in "Carpe Noctem". The villain of the episode is an old man named Marcus who frequently swaps bodies with younger and healthier men to live out his fantasies. Angel becomes his latest victim and he is surprised to discover that he is a vampire. However, Marcus sees this as a boon since a vampire's body won't expire unlike the other bodies he stole. In fact, the only problem Marcus ever had while inhabiting Angel's body was when he briefly mistook Angel for a gay man.

* ''Film/MrNobody'': In a timeline Nemo is driven to make life choices with the [[HeadsOrTails flip of a coin]] after feeling [[LonelyAtTheTop dissatisfied with his rich life]]. He ends up at an airport where a man at the reception is waiting for "Daniel Jones" and Nemo decides to pretend to be him. He's taken to a fancy hotel, but while taking a bath it turns out that whoever Daniel Jones was, he was headed for a trap, and thus Nemo gets assassinated in his place.
* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': Elizabeth Swann lies to Captain Barbossa about her identity, not wanting to reveal to him that the woman he's holding prisoner is actually the daughter of the Governor of Port Royal. Unfortunately, the surname she chooses happens to belong to a former crewmate of Barbossa's, whose blood he needs to lift the curse on him and his crew, leading Barbossa to mistakenly believe he can use Elizabeth to break the curse.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Subverted in "Carpe Noctem". The villain of the episode is an old man named Marcus who frequently swaps bodies with younger and healthier men to live out his fantasies. Angel becomes his latest victim and he is surprised to discover that he is a vampire. However, Marcus sees this as a boon since a vampire's body won't expire unlike the other bodies he stole. In fact, the only problem Marcus ever had while inhabiting Angel's body was when he briefly mistook Angel for a homosexual.

* The ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Enemies Foreign" starts with a girl using a portable credit card scanner to commit multiple identity thefts. She then walks down the street with goodies purchased with her stolen money when she's ambushed by Tony and [=McGee=] with their guns drawn. It turns out that one of her stolen identities is on a terrorist watch list.

* ''Series/{{The Outer Limits|1995}}'': "Skin Deep" has a nerdy guy acquire a device that allows him to change his appearance. He murders a handsome coworker and steals his identity, reveling in his new popularity and hot girlfriend. He is murdered by a loan shark to whom the handsome coworker owed money.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''.
** In "Most Likely To...", John Reese infiltrates a ClassReunion and keeps getting his face slapped by attractive women. Turns out the man whose identity he stole was quite TheCasanova in his high school days.
** In "A More Perfect Union", Harold Finch poses as someone's long lost uncle and finds himself called on to sing at a high society wedding as the uncle is supposed to be a good singer. Despite being HollywoodToneDeaf Finch is able to muddle his way through the song.

* ''Series/WillAndGrace'': Jack and Grace attend an ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'' convention in "Performance Anxiety". Grace, who wanted to play Annie when she was a kid but was denied the opportunity, decides to live out her dream by posing as a beloved actress who played the character. Unfortunately, the actress Grace impersonates had sabotaged another woman to get the iconic role, and said woman is at the convention and is very pissed off at the person she believes Grace to be.

* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'': Invoked in "[[Recap/DanVsS1E18DanVsDan Dan Vs. Dan]]". A {{Doppelganger}} steals Dan's identity and even quickly wins over the few people still loyal to the real Dan. But when the doppelganger takes Dan's identity, he unknowingly takes Dan's criminal record as well. The real Dan gets his revenge by intentionally skipping his trial for crashing his car into a church, resulting in the imposter getting arrested in his place.

* ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'': This results in the KarmicTwistEnding of "The Four of Us Are Dying". Petty criminal Arch Hammer has the ability to change his face, which he uses to [[ShapeshiftingSeducer trick a trumpet player's grieving girlfriend]] and extort a gangster for money. However, after shapeshifting into boxer Andy Marshak [[HeWentThatWay to hide from mobsters]], he runs into Marshak's father, who has a bone to pick with his wayward son for [[NoodleIncident a mostly unspecified crime]] that [[HonorRelatedAbuse brought great shame to Marshak's family]]. The next time Hammer takes Marshak's face, he finds that this time [[OffingTheOffspring his father has a gun]].

* ''Literature/TheIllustratedStarWarsUniverse'': In the Tatooine chapter, [[InvisibleIntrovert Senior Anthropologist Hoole]] uses his shapeshifting and mind-fogging powers to fit in at Jabba's palace. Unfortunately, this actually subjects him to even more suspicion, as the palace is a DecadentCourt in which everyone is trying to overthrow Jabba and backstab anyone who might be in the way, so Hoole's attempt to fit in makes him look like just another schemer: he's left struggling to avoid the spotlight as the rest of Jabba's entourage try to work out what his agenda is. Worse still, Jabba is immune to Hoole's mind-fogging, which only makes the visit even more dangerous than it would have been if he'd just shown up in his ShapeshifterDefaultForm. In the end, Hoole is forced to leave the palace in the company of a Jawa clan before things get any worse.