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I’m sitting in an airport in Charleston, South Carolina, awaiting a flight to Charlotte, and the connector to Pittsburgh. I was going to share my experiences in Charleston upon the tenth commemoration of the massacre of the Emanuel Nine in Mother Emanuel AME Church on June 17, 2025. However, I had a rather frightening experience that upon reflection was far more important to share with you now. I will reflect upon my experiences in Charleston and offer them in next week’s blog.

I received a voice mail from “Amazon Security” so I called them back. In essence, the gentleman reported that someone had used my name and account to order a new iPhone that was shipped to California. He gave his name and badge number. I explained that I had not placed any such order. After going back and forth for several minutes, he claimed that I had been the victim of identity theft, and that my confidential information had been compromised, including my social security number. He said that he was putting me on a brief hold to called the “Social Security Identity Theft Division”. Now at this point you are going to say “Rabbi, didn’t you know that this was a scam?”  It is always easy in hindsight to recognize it, but in the midst of it, no, I didn’t recognize it. I then was introduced to what sounded like an official woman who gave a name and government badge number. She said that a number of bank accounts had been opened in my name, and that over one million dollars had been wired to purported bad actors in South America. She went on that US Marshalls and other governmental agencies had been following this for a few days. At this point I was badly shaken by all of this. Fortunately I never gave my entire social security number, but merely the last four digits, stating that “If you are the Social Security Administration, then you have my number right in front of you.”. She asked further information, as she confirmed my home address. I could go on with this saga, but it is not necessary. She was transferring me to another department when my connection was lost. Despite four attempts to reach the original person, I was never connected. At this point I knew something was wrong. I immediately called my bank to inform them of the potential or real identity theft. Fortunately there was a branch across the street from my hotel. I met with the manager there, and set up a password for telephone calls as an extra layer of security. I next called my two credit card companies and financial advisor, so all knew what transpired, but I was still shaken by this. 

I reached out to my friends in the Pittsburgh US Attorney’s office, as I didn’t know what to do.  They calmly explained that this scam was very common and I did the right things. They called the Pittsburgh office of the FBI, and an agent called me. She calmed me down, assured me that I took the right steps, and I gave her all of the pertinent information.  She made one additional suggestion. I should call all three credit reporting bureaus and place a credit freeze on my accounts. This means that no new credit cards or any form of credit can occur without direct confirmation from me that I am doing so. An additional step of reporting this to the FBI was unnecessary since she personally took down all of the information. 

If you have been the victim of identity theft or a scam, the FBI has a form to fill out on-line, which is crucial for them to track this ever-growing problem.  That site is ic3.gov.  

I hope that by sharing my experience, if I can either prevent one new potential victim or provide guidance, then that would be wonderful. I learned an important lesson the hard way, and will be better prepared for the next time.