The story of Margot Somerville is a true cautionary tale about identity theft. Clark originally read about this 64 year old's story in The San Francisco Chronicle and was floored by the unbelievable details.

Today, Somerville was a guest on the show and gave a firsthand account of what happened to her.

Before we begin, it's important to note that Somerville spent 25 years with Wells Fargo and retired as a vice president at the financial giant. Yet it was the very bank she was so loyal to that accused her of masterminding a check fraud scheme.

In June 2006, Somerville's wallet was stolen in San Francisco and she promptly filed a police report. She practically forgot about the whole episode until the following November. It was then that she went online to pay some bills and noticed $20,000 missing from her bank account.

After reporting the suspicious activity, she was asked by police to take a number of handwriting tests and lie detector tests over the course of several months. Much of the testing took place in Denver, where at least part of the missing money was withdrawn from her account by crooks.

But while Somerville thought she was helping police build a case and catch the criminals, they were really building evidence against her.

She still didn't have her money back 6 months after the initial $20,000 went missing.

Then in April 2007, Somerville was arrested at her Walnut Creek, Calif., home and spent the night in jail. She was charged with 19 counts of ID theft because Colorado authorities believed she was in fact an ID theft ringleader and not a victim.

The case was ultimately thrown out of court in November 2008. But Somerville says it was only dismissed because the police couldn't get enough evidence to pin it on her; they still believe to this day they had the right woman.

So what's the takeaway here for you? Somerville sees a twofold lesson.

First, always file a police report no matter how simple you think the crime may be. It always helps to have documentation.

The second lesson is a bit more surprising. Somerville told Clark that she learned the drawbacks of being too cooperative. Had she not been so willing when it came to taking multiple handwriting and lie detector tests, the police may have pursued another line of inquiry and none of this would have ever happened.

By the way, Somerville did eventually get her $20,000 back after much grief.