All Posts Tagged With: "social security numbers"
People who cheated FEMA are getting caught
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Wed, Dec 16 2009 | 0 Comments
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast four years ago this week. It just so happens that people are still getting caught today for trying to trick the government into giving them thousands of dollars for rescue money when they didn’t even have a residence on the coast.
Living close to Memphis, when the hurricane hit, many people fled here. There were a few people who were already living here that decided to cash in on some of the hardships that people who lost their homes were facing.
One woman, Jennifer Blaye from the Memphis area, was indited on federal charges for defrauding FEMA to the tune of $140,000. All the money was supposed to be for disaster relief and was meant to go to the people who actually lost every thing from the storm. However, she used false names and social security numbers to get the money. Of course, she has plead not guilty and so, she is not yet a felon, but we’ll see.
I believe that the majority of people try to do good things and not harm others, but there are always going to be a few who will cheat and scheme anyway that they can to make a few dollars. There are even people who will try to cheat the system and steal from other people if it means that they can get ahead. Those kinds of people are the few that makes the good people not want to donate to charities and hate the welfare and disability systems in our country.
I’ve been to both New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the past year and I have to say, they have both come a long way from where they were. The areas of New Orleans I saw were all pretty much the older parts of the town that stayed in tact, but on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, most of it is new and rebuilt. There isn’t anything on the coast that is old. Even the roads were new. It was just a bit eerie, even now.
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Tags: memphis area, hurricane katrina, blaye
Beware of Phishing scams in your mailbox.
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Nov 12 2009 | 1 Comment
While I’m not too sure if this was a phishing attempt or not, Chris and I got a letter in the mail a little while ago that wanted a bit of information from him; a credit card number and more contact information (how much more information could they need if they already had our address?). The reason that the company wanted the information was to give him a “claim” on a lawsuit that he never filed (or to his knowledge) was ever a part of. The whole thing seemed a bit scammy even if the letter looked like it was from a legitimate company.
So I began looking a little more into the letter and the senders. The people who sent the letter (whoever they are) are not at the address that is listed on the letter. Even the law firm that says created, filed, and tried the lawsuit was not the actual law firm that is the legitimate law firm for the suit.
So, if this is a phishing scam, do they not realize that people have Google? I mean, when my friends or I don’t know the answer to something our first response is “I’ll Google it.”
These days people are not simply going to give up their credit card information, social security numbers, bank account information, etc. to someone who just sent a letter to their house. Even if, it looks more legitimate when its sent through the USPS rather than Gmail.
I suppose the moral of the story is to always check to make sure that, before you send off your information to a company that may or may not be who they say, check! You never know whether that is an actual company or a poser.
I am really glad that I looked up that information, but I was thinking, “Who do I report this to?” Chris asked me the same question and the only thing I could think of “Well, this doesn’t have a ‘report phishing’ like email does.” So, who do you report phishing attempts through the mail to?
Related posts:Phishing attempts; Really?
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Tags: phishing scams, legitimate company, credit card information
Phishing attempts; Really?
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Mon, Oct 05 2009 | 0 Comments
While I’m not too sure if this was a phishing attempt or not, Chris and I got a letter in the mail today that asked for some credit card information for a claim on a lawsuit that we never made. First, Chris said that it was a bit gimmecky, but the letter looked legit.
So I started looking a little into it. The people who sent the letter (whoever they are) are not at the address that is listed on the letter. Even the law firm that says created, filed, and tried the lawsuit was not the actual law firm that is the legitimate law firm for the suit.
So, if this is a phishing scam, do they not realize that people have Google? I mean, when my friends or I don’t know the answer to something our first response is “I’ll Google it.”
These days people are not simply going to give up their credit card information, social security numbers, bank account information, etc. to someone who just sent a letter to their house. Even if, it looks more legitimate when its sent through the USPS rather than Gmail.
I suppose the moral of the story is to always check to make sure that, before you send off your information to a company that may or may not be who they say, check! You never know whether that is an actual company or a poser.
I am really glad that I looked up that information, but I was thinking, “Who do I report this to?” Chris asked me the same question and the only thing I could think of “Well, this doesn’t have a ‘report phishing’ like email does.” So, who do you report phishing attempts through the mail to?
Related posts:Beware of Phishing scams in your mailbox.
Today’s Ebook – Phishing and Pharming: Helping Consumers Avoid Internet Fraud
Tags: report phishing, first response, moral of the story
Gmail account deactivated; stupid that it happened and stupid that Google obliged.
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Mon, Sep 28 2009 | 0 Comments
A federal judge ordered Google to deactivate an email account of someone who was sent a confidential email by accident by a bank. The order was issued by the U.S. District Court Judge James Ware. He is a district court judge in the northern district of California.
Along with the order to deactivate the account, the judge also ordered that the gmail account user be identified and that the court be given his or her contact information, even though the Gmail account user has not been accused of any wrong doing in the case.
The ruling stems from a monumental error by the Wilson, Wyo.-based Rocky Mountain Bank. On Aug. 12, the bank mistakenly sent names, addresses, social security numbers and loan information of more than 1,300 customers to a Gmail address. When the bank realized the problem, it sent a message to that same address asking the recipient to contact the bank and destroy the file without opening it. No one responded, so the bank contacted Google to ask for information about the account holder.
In keeping with its privacy policy, Google told the bank it would have to get a court order to obtain such data. The bank then filed papers asking a court to order Google to disclose the information and deactivate the account.
When the bank tried to file its papers under a seal, the U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte did not allow that to happen. It was earlier in the week that the case went from Whyte to Ware.
What do you do when an email account is given information that it was obviously never supposed to get? i think that the user in this situation should at least be notified as to what is going on with his or her account (and the bank, along with the U.S. District Court should hope that the user is not a consumer rights activist or read the Consumerist on a regular basis.). I suppose the bank should have tried to shut down the email that was sent, but should the email account really have been turned off completely?
What do you all think?
I’m not so sure myself. I don’t think that the account should have been turned off.
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Tags: northern district of california, California, social security
