Nearly everyone has heard the term "social engineering" before. The term refers to a clever technique that can be used to get information from individuals without having to steal it or hack into a system. The technique is very effective. People like to talk, and if you ask enough questions, people will tell you quite a bit through the course of a normal conversation. Some people talk so freely in fact, that one senior citizen in Louisville, Kentucky apparently gave enough information for a nursing home employee to open up an American Express card with the patient as the co-signer and rack up $100,000 before the patient realized it. In fact, had the patient not received a call from American Express thanking her for opening the account, it may have taken much longer to figure out what was going on.
According to an article on WLKY.com, the suspect, Danielle McClain, actually had a criminal record for criminal possession of a forged instrument and spent 6 years in prison. Apparently, that's not enough of a red flag for some people. She was hired at the nursing home in Louisville anyway. Rest assured, a new policy is in place that will screen all employees and vendors' employees in the future.
It seems natural that someone recovering form surgery in a nursing home would make friends with the staff and get into lengthy conversations. That's part of our frail human nature. It's okay to be friendly, but as the phrase goes, "don't give away the farm" while you talk. As this example points out, we should be careful with the information we disclose. Without realizing it, you may be giving away valuable information, like your mother's maiden name, spouse's birth date, etc. This is information sometimes used to open new accounts.
The lesson here: be careful what you say. You never know how it can be used against you.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Posts
5 comments:
Intersetingly enough, I am a neighbor of Danielle McClain. During this alleged "6 years in prison" (2001-2007) this woman was not in prison, but an upstanding member of our neighborhood. I believe there is more going on here than what was reported and this is a horrific case of mistaken identity. The case against her (and all the other employees at the facility) was dismissed.
Sadly, mistakes are often made and innocent people are often blamed, charged and serve time for crimes they did not commit. If this is a case of mistaken identity and this particular Danielle McClain is innocent of identity theft and fraud, and as you say did not serve any time in prison, being her neighbor I'm sure you would have no reservations against sharing any news links detailing the dismissal of her case in order to clear her name.
This Daniele Mcclain is the same and I am also a neighbor. We just finished a meeting with our neighbor association. She apparently has stolen over ten grand from us while she was the treasurer of our association. her husband is trying to pay back the money and the charges were dismiss so they could go on to a federal court instead since she has a history.
Theft can occur anywhere and it looks like she was looking for every opportunity. This type of theft, embezzlement, is more likely to occur where people that are either greedy, or are desperate due to the poor economy, have access to funds. Proper background checks should be conducted, sadly, even on members of the HOA. It's getting to where you can't trust anyone anymore. Make them prove to you they are trustworthy first.
This Danielle McClain is indeed a criminal. She stole from the lady at the nursing home, had past criminal history and served time for it, and is now in trouble for embezzlement. Here's her picture and the article about her stealing from the HOA where she was treasurer. A piece of work this one.
So to the neighbor who says she's an upstanding member of the neighborhood and that this is a case of mistaken identity, you must be extremely hard to disappoint!
http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/whas11-topstory-090715-treasurer-allegedly-steals.43a7c27e.html
Post a Comment