FROM THE EDITOR'S PEN /
Runaround Sue /
Editorial List
Late last Friday night, I received a call
from a friend who was as the saying goes - quite beside
herself. Sue is a smart, dedicated and experienced healthcare
professional who I have counted upon for answers to many tricky
questions in her field. She had just gotten off of a telephone
call with representatives of a group who were finalizing the
paperwork on a grant they said she was about to receive. After
the call, it occurred to her that not only did she not have any
grant requests out, but some of the questions seemed strange.
Why, in fact would they need to know the last four digits of her
Social Security number and why did they need to know her bank
account information?
As I said, by the time she called me she
was quite concerned. I asked her about the call and told her
to immediately contact her local police department and explain
what happened. A detective came out to her house immediately
and started the process of trying to protect Sue from any
possible repercussions of the phone call. He left her with a
list of things to do immediately the next morning, including:
going to the bank and notifying them of the possibly identity
theft attempt, contacting the three credit bureaus (Experian,
Tran-Union and Equifax) and to remember to take slow deep
breaths.
Although you may think that identity theft
can only happen to someone else; not someone smart, dedicated
and experienced, like you...you still may want to spend some
time reviewing the following link. Just to make sure that the
next Sue isn't you.
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs17a.htm
Gary Barg
Editor-in-Chief
gary@caregiver.com
