Article January 10, 2011 Issue

Your identity cannot be stolen

By Ann Kenrick

One Monday morning recently, I was opening my e-mails when I spotted one from a good friend, so I quickly opened it. It said that she and her husband were in Spain and that they had been held up at gun-point and stripped of all their money and credit cards. It explained they still had their passports, but in order to pay the hotel bill and continue on their trip they would need quite a sum of money. And they asked if I could help them out by sending them some money to save their embarrassment.

Well, I was just thinking what was the best way to help my friends when I said to myself, “Wait a minute. You saw these friends with their family yesterday eating at the same restaurant you were in! How could they be in Spain? Wake up! This is a scam!” A quick call to my friends assured me that they were indeed safely in London. This fraudulent e-mail had been sent to their friends all over the world. The only good thing that came out of it, they said, was that they got to talk to all their concerned family and friends on the telephone, which they hadn’t done in months!

Our innate innocence as a child of God can never be taken away.