WHAT IS PATERNITY FRAUD: Paternity fraud is cuckolding (cuck-old, noun). According to Webster's Dictionary, "Cuckold" is an allusion to the cuckoo bird on which the word cuckold is based. The female of some Old World cuckoos lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving them to be cared for by the resident nesters. This parasitic tendency has given the female bird a figurative reputation for unfaithfulness as well. Hence, in Old French, we find the word cucuault, composed of cocu, cuckoo, cuckold, and the pejorative suffix -ald and used to designate a husband whose wife has wandered afield like the female cuckoo. An earlier assumed form of the Old French word was borrowed into Middle English by way of Anglo-Norman. Middle English cokewold, the ancestor of Modern English cuckold, is first recorded in a work written around 1250.

So, paternity fraud is a parasitic tendency of unfaithful women to cuckold; that is, a tendency of unfaithful women to surreptitiously claim a man is the father of her children even though he is not.

The children's rights movement calls it "Child Identity Theft." The father's rights movement calls it "paternity fraud". It is the same thing by a different name. There can be dozens or more victims from just one incident: the child(ren), the biological father, the falsely named father, their families of choice, and the extended families of all involved.

Withholding someone's true biological identity can dramatically affect lives. Potential adverse consequences are endless, including death. Paternity fraud and Child Identity Theft can easily adversely impact "Duped Dads," involved children, including the adopted; sperm donors, and those needing blood transfusions from a parent, just to name a few of the potential victims, and how about rights and benefits?

Victims of paternity fraud and Child Identity Theft may be denied otherwise entitled to inheritance rights, social security benefits, military benefits, and other rights and benefits associated with biological parentage.

Paternity fraud and Child Identity Theft can lead to violence, divorce, imprisonment of the "Duped Dad," bankruptcy or the wrongly identified man, and even suicide from the trauma associated with false identification.

Moreover, if any of this can be construed to be in the "best interests" of anyone, how then, do the adverse consequences benefit a Duped Dad's family of choice, particularly the children? Pataternity fraud and child identity theft are disgusting forms of domestic violence and child abuse. Unfortunately, perpetrators are seldom if ever held accountable, thereby making government an accomplice to the corruption.