PALM BEACH, Fla., July 8 Families of U.S. soldiers serving overseas are the newest victims of identity theft as criminals attempt to take advantage of their loved ones' absence.
Experts said soldiers' tendency to post their Social Security numbers freely overseas, combined with their long military deployments, has made their stateside families criminal targets, The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post said Sunday.
The problem has been addressed by both the American Red Cross and all four U.S. military branches, but uninformed family members are still being targeted.
Palm Beach receptionist Maureen Rieth, whose son is serving in Afghanistan, said a man recently called her claiming to need her son's personal information to send the soldier's body home.
While a grief-stricken Rieth managed to avoid giving out that data, she said the difficult part was calming down her enraged son.
"I tried to explain to him there is evil all over the world, and that's the original reason why he is there," she told the Post.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
