<prompt> Human: Personal Finance, I know you can direct me to the right place even if this is the wrong area to post.Today was payday.Today was the day that the California Dept. of Child Services took ALL of my money. They have levied EVERYTHING claiming that I have not been paying child support.I am not a resident of California, and I have no child. The name they have on the file is NOT me, and they have confirmed this. But they say there is nothing that they can do to get me my money back. I have a person with the department trying to help me, but they cannot do anything for 30-45 days at best according to what they are telling me.Please help me, someone please tell me what I do now. This is the first time in my life that I am completely lost on a financial matter.For the record. I have had sex with two people in my life. One is my wife, the other is a friend of mine who is on speaking terms. It is not either of them. Again, they confirmed the information on their records does not match me.Do I need a lawyer?Edit: a word---Update 1: I now have a lawyer my company provides one for 30 minutes, once a year, on demand, by phone who gave me some advice on where to go from here. Right now, he said I need to document everything which I already knew and have been, and I need to ride out what the state is going to do with the information. I also have homework and am going to fedex them letters tomorrow, informing them of who I am, what they have done, threatening legal action if I am not compensated IN FULL plus additional amounts for hardships endured due to the lack of money, the lack of interest, the lack of investments gaining interest, penalties incurred, etc... He also told me to mail a copy to the Governor, and the State Attorney Generals office.The reality that this lawyer told me to face is that I must go through the states appeals process first and see if that works.I also managed to get this information:County: Los AngelesSex of the person involved: Female I am maleName of the person: G C my name is D RThey also acknowledged that there has been an error and it is clearly not me, though they will have me attempt to prove that with the fraud department in the next seven days or so.---Edit 2: For clarity; the only thing that matches is that they typod, and have admitted to such, my SSN onto this other persons record.---Edit 3: Everything is on hold until Monday when I will be jumping through a thousand hoops. Maybe I should take the day off of work. idk In the meantime, I stopped by Bank of America this morning and took with me a letter from the Social Security Administration stating that my SSN belongs to me used in opening a loan some years back, my Social Security Card, my Passport, my ID, my Birth Certificate. All to prove that I am me, and that California has the wrong person. The Bank of America person helped me IMMENSELY. He was able to get me 500 and I have to have a meeting with him again Monday so that we can contact BofA legal and sort it out from there, together.Everyone is in agreement. This is NUTS and a first. But at least I found someone at the bank who is willing to hear me out.  <response>: Sorry to hear about this, and also sorry I have no idea how to help, except to suggest you could try rlegaladvice also 