False Personation Law and Legal Definition
False personation is the crime of falsely assuming the personal identity of another person to gain a benefit or to cause harm to the other person. For example, an individual who pretends himself/herself to be another person in order to wrongfully cash such other person’s paycheck commits false personation. A false personation does not require a person to alter her/his voice, to wear a disguise, or otherwise to change her/his characteristics or appearance. Hence, the offense of false personation requires a deliberate effort to pass oneself off as another. It is also called as false impersonation. “False personation is punishable as either a felony or a misdemeanor.”[ People v. Chardon, 77 Cal. App. 4th 205 (Cal. Ct. App. 1999)].
