The criminal element is out there in force. Identity theft has become an epidemic. If we are not on guard, we can be fooled into the fraud that the criminal element has in store for us.
Months ago a young man called my mom claiming to be my son. The caller told her he got into a little trouble, was in jail, and needed money to get out on bail. Being his grandma, my mom wanted desperately to help, and would have if not for the terrible timing of the phone call. My mom, when the phone rang, was getting into her car as a passenger. Dad was taking her to the hospital for a surgery.
Immediately after her ten minute conversation with the boy that claimed to be my son, she called me. She was upset when I didn't believe it was my son. She was convinced it was him. He spoke like him, and he knew things few people know. The problem is, at the time of the phone call, my son was with his wife and kids on the road, and I knew it. Shortly before the call by the fraudster to my mom, I was with my son. I knew he was not in jail, and he had not spent the night in jail.
When we began doing a little investigation, my sister discovered the phone number used to make the call had been reported as being used for fraudulent reasons a number of times in the past. A family member in the sheriff's department discovered the same. My mom had almost been the victim of a new kind of scam.
As a political pundit, I am always on guard. With the fraudulent call to my mom in my recent memory, I am aware that some of the tactics being used are unexpected, and aim at the emotions of our big hearts. Right now there are people being called fraudulently by folks claiming to be the IRS, or other federal agencies, threatening liens or fines if money isn't sent immediately. Often, these people calling will already have your social security number, and address, and it is just a matter of getting your credit card number, or your date of birth, that his holding them back from taking advantage of your identity, or finances.
Which brings me to my fraudulent call from Washington DC.
On my cell phone, the number was not visible, and my phone simply said, "Unknown." I have a couple friends with unlisted numbers, and that is how it comes up on my screen when they call, so I assumed it was probably one of them. When I answered the man told me he was calling from a department in Washington DC, and he had a federal grant waiting for me that needed only my approval for it to be sent to me. When he said the name of the department, it was garbled, so I asked, "from what department are you calling?"
"Washington DC," he said. "I calling you from Washington DC and we have a check for you. I only need to verify your information, and for you to give me an approval to send this free money to you."
I immediately knew something didn't seem right, and taking a clue from the IRS story about fraudulent calls, I went on guard. The federal government explains that the IRS will not call you on your phone, or send you an email. They send you a snail mail notification. Armed with that knowledge, I asked, "Did you send me a notification by mail?"
The caller hung up.
Scams are all around us. The criminal element is desperate to get your information to steal your identity, or gain access to your finances. We must be vigilant in how we maintain our personal information, and be aware when we receive notices that are suspicious. The criminal element does their homework, they likely know things you would not think they'd know, and they are trying to use any strategy they can to convince you they are a legitimate agency, or company, that you need to send your money to. As consumers, we must verify, verify, and then verify again. We cannot be too trusting. We must not give out our information to anyone unless we are one hundred percent sure they are the agency they say they are, and we are fully willing to cooperate with whomever it is because of those assurances.
Requiring snail mail verification is one of those methods we can use to weed out the truth, and expose scammers for who they are.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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