September 2007 Vol. 26. No. 9

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

New Alzheimer’s Center
Did California speak?
Senior Fraud Alert
Driver Safety fall schedule
Think About It, Show up, make a difference
Unsung heroes: Senior employees appreciated
Ferndale: Bocce court is shaping up

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Senior Fraud Alert

It is always important to protect your personal information
because of the threat of fraud and identity theft.

Never give out your Social Security number, credit card numbers or Medicare number to someone you do not know who contacts you by telephone. Legitimate businesses do not pressure people to give out this information.

Never use e-mail to send this type of personal information. Unlike the U.S. mail, e-mail is not secure.

If you use the Internet to enter personal information, always make sure the web page is secure. Anytime you view a web site, information is sent from your computer to the web server and from the web server to your computer. The transmission of this information is normally sent in “plain text,” meaning anyone would be able to read it should they see it. Now consider this. Each piece of information transmitted traverses many computers (servers) to reach its destination.

The solution to this problem is to encrypt this data for transmission. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) was created for this very purpose. SSL uses a complex system of key exchanges between your browser and the server you are communicating with in order to encrypt the data before transmitting it across the web. A web page with an active SSL session is what we mean when we say a web page is “secure.”

There are two general indications of a secured web page:

• Check the web page URL. Normally, when browsing the web, the URLs (web page addresses) begin with the letters “http.” However, over a secure connection the address displayed should begin with “https” — note the “s” at the end.

• Check for the “Lock” icon. There is a de facto standard among web browsers to display a “lock” icon somewhere in the window of the browser (NOT in the web page display area). For example, Microsoft Internet Explorer displays the lock icon in the lower right of the browser window.

If you believe you may have been a victim of identity theft or fraud, you can call Senior Information and Assistance at 442-9591 for help. – Anne Conrad-Antoville