June 28th, 2010 
admin Question by shortdaylongnight: Crazy Church Lady or Insurance Con Artist?
Several months ago my parents were approached by an acquaintance/fellow parishioner at their church which they have been going to for 50 years (they met and were married at this church as well). The lady who approached them was fairly new to the Church and new to the faith, a member of around two years, and in her mid to late 20′s. She had asked my parents if they would please be the benefactor of her life insurance policy which included a lump sum of cash and entailed responsibility over her ashes. They agreed and a few weeks later she presented them with papers to sign in which they both included personal information including their social security numbers, home address, DOB and so on. 8-10 months has elapsed and the young lady has yet to notarize and submit the document she had them sign. When I heard this story I went fishing for as much information as I could and my mother revealed that she was against doing this yet my father insisted they go forward and agree. The lady is from out of town, several states away, moved here for a part time job at an assisted living facility, and my father is under the impression that she used to be homeless and has parents with many shortcomings. She has no car or no phone and she lives in the basement of a house near her work. She gives my parents random presents such as gift certificates, religious items and gourmet foods. As an adult child I need to figure out if she is she crazy or if she is a con? Has anyone heard of a type of scam or fraud or identity theft where someone approaches you and asks you to be the benefactor of their life insurance policy?
Best answer:
Answer by kickin` Liberal aass
Once she has information such as social security numbers, home address, DOB etc , she can screw them blind !!
She could be working on getting credit cards in their names right now !!
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Anything is possible with the information that she has been given. If you want you could do an online background check of this lady on Intelius (about $50 for everything they have). Ask the preacher for any information that he/she may have about the lady. Also, ask other people at the church those same questions. One could assume that you grew up in the church, so go to the people that you have known you whole life.
Several worst case scenarios can play out here:
1- She is using your parents information to hold the job that she has because she is a wanted fugitive. ‘Flying under the radar’ so to speak. This is a common practice for people hiding from their past and the law.
2- She could be establishing new credit profiles in your parents names. Either in your mother and fathers names or even in her own name. True name Identity Theft occurs when a thief uses their real name to establish accounts (credit, utilities, or otherwise) using someone else’ SSN/ DOB/ etc. CRA workers will sometimes simply open a sub-folder under that SSN and place the new name and information in that folder. Really scary stuff: When your parents get their annual credit reports, the sub-folders will not be contained in the report. Reason being, that isn’t their name, or PII contained within the folder. If there is a sub-folder, a court order/subpoena would be necessary. If it got to this point law enforcement would definitely be involved. This particular scenario can be difficult to pull off. It would take someone that really knows what they are doing. And, it is much more involved than the simple overview I’m giving here (don’t want to plant ideas in would be criminals minds)
3- She could be selling the information online in various forums and chat rooms that deal in PII (Personally Identifying Information). I refer to this as skid-row of the net.
Take a deep breath… These are worst case scenarios. This lady could be legitimate. I’m responding to the concerns you posted here without knowing anything beyond that.
Do some additional digging. Have your parents pull their free credit reports from: http://www.annualcreditreport.com Only pull one at a time. Since the lady has access to both parents information stagger the reports like so:
March Your Mothers report from Experian
May Your Fathers report from Equifax
July Your Mothers report from TransUnion
September Your Fathers report from Experian
November Your Mothers report from Equifax
January Your Fathers report from TransUnion
And, in March of 2011 begin the rotation again. Maintain this every year.
If your parents do not have a need for access to credit at this point in their lives, they can place a credit freeze on each of their profiles. Be vigilant with them, and your information as well. Identity Theft cannot be prevented.
Mark A Priganc, Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist
Author of: Identity Theft: The Personal Guide
Founder of: The National Law Enforcement Identity Theft Summit