How Many People Would Do This

I read this story about a dog pulling its master out of the way of a train.  The dog, though, was severely injured in the act.  Amazing.

Just to give humans the benefit of the doubt, there is this story.  A roofer working at a factory fell 40 feet into a vat of acid.  His co-worker doesn't hesitate in going in after him to retrieve him - and save his life (don't worry it isn't hydrocholoric acid, so both are expected to fully recover).

Now I mention these two stories because just last night at our ECFE meeting, a lawyer was invited to talk to parents about identity theft and living wills.

As she talked about identity theft, she informed us that one of the places with highest rates of identity theft in the country was Grand Forks, ND.

It's quite simple: people foolishly throw away credit card offers without burning or shredding them.  Thieves will then dig through trash to find these offers and fill them out for you and then ruin your credit. Or other thieves will send fake prize checks to unsuspecting people.  The lawyer mentioned how she talked with one man who received a check for $5,000 in the mail.  All he had to do was cash it and send the company $600 to take care of the taxes and fees he would normally have to pay for winning such a large cash prize.

Sounds too good to be true, right?  Yes.

It sounded that way to the man too.  So he brought the prize check to a president of a bank.  The president actually thought it was legit too and told him to cash it while he congratulated him.

Unfortunately, a week later the check bounced.  In the meantime the man had used the $4,400 to pay off some debt and the crooks earned $600 cash as a result of the scheme.

As she talked she warned us to not trust anyone or anything.  And if it sounded too good to be true, it was just that and to shred it.

Then she mentioned how often the elderly are the number one targets.  She said that she often visits retirement homes to talk about identity theft.  She has actually lost track of the senior citizens who have come up to her to confess that they have been victims of identity theft.  And incredibly, and this is the part that disgusts me, they have been taken advantage of someone who was NOT a stranger to them.  That means some family member filled out a credit card application for them and then rang up a huge bill.

How despicable is that?

And that's why I despair over such actions and wonder if family members are willing to do that to each other, would they even bother to save a family member from a train or pull them out of acid?