If you've been affected by a recent natural disaster, has someone called and asked you to verify your FEMA registration?

Multiple complaints have been filed by people who have been scammed by thieves pretending to be employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  These include survivors from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, as well as victims of the California wildfires.

• Victims have received phone calls asking them for personal information--even though they didn't apply for FEMA assistance.
• When victims do try to apply for FEMA assistance, they discover that someone has already applied using their names because they receive a "verification error."
• People claiming to be FEMA inspectors have been asking to gain entry to damaged homes. These individuals wear a shirt or jacket with the FEMA name, but they do not possess a FEMA photo ID badge.
• Inspectors ask for money before starting an inspection. (Federal and state workers will never ask for or accept money.

If you or someone you know may have fallen victim to or have knowledge of these types of frauds, visit the FEMA Disaster Fraud page for more information.

Source: FEMA impersonators and identity theft

See past postings at the SMP CyberSAFE archives page.

Student:  "HOPE...Sometimes that's all you have when you have nothing else.  If you have it, you have everything."  -Unknown

Staff:  "Hope is activated when we can say to ourselves:  I am willing to trust, to wait without demanding answers, and to contribute myself to the most positive use of the present."  -Unknown