A Personal Introduction to the 365 Anniversaries Chain Letter E-Mail
"I wouldn't participate." This was the reaction I
received
when I presented the
"365 Anniversaries" e-mail to
a County Recorder Office.
FACT BOX
By adding your information to the e-mail,
you and your spouse can be identified by your marriage
license.
A California marriage license contains some personal information you
might not want to share:
-
Date of Birth
-
Mother's Maiden Name
-
Signature
-
Place of Birth
-
Occupation
But it was too late. My wife had already forwarded it to
11 people. And one of those people forwarded it to
another 51 people!
She thought it was a "cute idea." The e-mail stressed
that you should not include your last name. It seemed
harmless.
And it was a cute idea: proving there is someone with an
anniversary on every day of the year within reach of
your e-mail account.
The Danger
By participating in this e-mail, you are giving
out three key pieces of information:
- You and your spouse's first name
- Year, month and day of your wedding
- The city and state of your wedding ceremony
Marriage licenses are public records and are often
used in identity theft schemes. The County
Recorder confirmed that you have provided enough information
for someone to
look up your marriage license.
In California (it varies by state and county), the information on a marriage license contains:
- Family's last name
- Date of birth (bride and groom)
- Mother's maiden name
- Signature
- City and state of birth (a good
starting point for obtaining your birth certificate,
also a public record)
You're clearly not as anonymous as the letter suggests.
In order for this chain e-mail to be successful, it must
pass through at least a thousand inboxes. Knowing that
anyone receiving this e-mail has enough information to
identify you, is it worth the risk?
Is This Letter Meant as an
Identity Theft Scam?
The person who sent it to you the e-mail probably
wasn't trying to assume your identity. However, someone
up the e-mail chain may have been.
Ask yourself
these questions:
- Who is Compiling this List?
The person didn't identify his or herself and no
organization is named. The people compiling this
information are only identified as "we."
- How will this Information be Used?
When the list is complete, where will you and your
spouse's anniversary be immortalized? Is the list
going be featured on a web site? Will it be an
exhibit in a family values museum? The e-mail is
pretty vague about how your personal information will be used.
- What is the Connection to "365 Birthdays" E-Mail?
There is similar e-mail asking its participants to
enter their name and place of birth next to their
birthday in a calendar (enough info to find a
birth certificate). The introduction text is almost
identical to 365 Anniversaries. What is this
unidentified person's obsession with these
calendars?
What Can You Do?
If you or someone you know has given out information in
this e-mail or your info is posted on a message board, consider taking these steps:
- Contact the People to Whom You Forwarded This
E-Mail
Tell them you don't want to spoil their fun, but this
e-mail is revealing more personal information than you
realized. Make sure they remove your info from the
anniversary calendar. If your information is on a
discussion board, encourage the original poster to
remove the message.
We have written a
warning letter that you can copy and
send or let Knowzy send a personalized copy for you.
- Do You Know the Person Who Sent it to You?
If the answer is no, you should report it. This may be a person with bad intentions.
If your info is on a public message board, you should
report it. Having the discussion board moderator take it
down is not enough.
The place to file a report is with the
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
This is the agency that collects and analyzes Internet
crime reports for the FBI and other government agencies.
If you open your own case, please reference
this site (http://www.knowzy.com).
- Obtain Your Credit Report
Federal law allows you one free credit report
per year from each of the three major credit bureaus. If a new credit card or bad debt was made
in your name, it would show up here.
The
official site is
http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Do not enroll
in a "credit monitoring service." These
services are an
entirely different kind of scam!
Read
more about how to protect yourself
and what to look for in your free credit report on
the Links page.
- Learn About Identity Theft
There is a great resource on the Internet both for becoming educated about identity theft and for helping vicitims of it. Visit the non-profit Identitiy Theft Resource Center. There you can learn ways to prevent identity theft and
find out what to do if someone has assumed your
identity.
- Look Up Your Own Marriage License
What a better way to affirm your marriage than
by seeing again the document both of you signed all
of those years ago! In addition, you will learn what
an identity thief may already know about you.
- Check Back for the
Latest Updates
This is a developing story and, to date, a
relatively unknown scam. As I receive feedback from readers like you, I
will report the news here.
- Talk About It
Share your thoughts on the 365 Anniversaries e-mail
chain letter on the Knowzy Feedback page for this topic.
Conclusion
Neither my wife nor myself have had our identity
stolen. We monitor our credit reports regularly, just in
case.
We contacted the people who forwarded the
message to us and the people my wife forwarded it to.
That limited the number of people with access to our
personal information.
The moral of the story is this:
If you are in the habit of forwarding chain e-mails,
never participate in one that asks for any type
of personal information, no matter how innocent it may
seem.
Take care and be safe!
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365 Anniversaries Chain E-Mail
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