President Nancy Acevedo called the meeting to order at 11:00 a.m. She announced the changes to the General Meeting structure, as follows:

1. Treasurer Sylvia Tatum will have copies of the Treasurer’s Report available on the back table, and there will be no oral report. 2. Nancy will present a monthly President’s Report and then turn the gavel over to a Board Member, who will chair the meeting. 3. Future meetings will be chaired by Board Members on a rotating basis. 4. A prize drawing will be held monthly, using the luncheon tickets.

Secretary Ruth Ann Hageman assumed the chair this month, and led the salute to the flag.

Minutes of the January 8 meeting were approved as presented.

New Members and first timers were introduced, and members were recognized who have birthdays or anniversaries this month.

Rebecca Wilson presented the CERS Report on the replacement of Carmen Lutes as the CERS Board Retiree Representative. Carmen cannot continue as the Representative because of family-care responsibilities. CERS will conduct an election among retirees for choosing their representative, unless there is only one eligible candidate.

No reports from the Advisory Committee or the Retirement Board. The status of the Retirement Funds was $4.95 billion.

The General Meeting was adjourned, and Ruth Ann introduced the speaker, Deputy District Attorney Joan Stein, who works in the Economic Crimes Unit.

Ms. Stein’s talk was on Identity Theft, and a brief summary follows:

First of all, to reassure us, Ms. Stein pointed out that most of the victims of identity theft are not in our age group (over 50), as follows: 25% of the victims are between the ages of 19 and 30; 50% of the victims are between 30 and 50, so only 25 % of the victims are 50 and older.

The crime of Identity Theft has changed drastically. There are experts at the Police Department, prosecution agencies, and judges are now all aware of the seriousness of Identity Theft.

There are two reasons that people become Identity Thieves: one is to hide their own identity; but the second, more serious on is to gain financially. These are opportunistic people, often in well-organized groups, often a bunch of meth freaks who don’t mind being awake in the night. They penetrate locked mail boxes. They are particularly interested in the brown boxes that contain our checks: we should pick these up at the bank. We should make sure that we carry nothing that has our Social Security Number because that SSN is their key to our identity. Never leave our wallet in the car. Restaurant’s often throw out the flimsies, and these can be collected from the garbage can. Never respond to an email that appears to be from our “bank” or the “IRS”: these emails are bound to be fake. Sometimes these thieves will pretend they are the Jury Commissioner, and threatening us if we don’t give them our SS#. They even might pretend they are the Red Cross and want to reach one of our relatives who in the military.

People can buy identities. Over the phone, make sure you are dealing with a well-established company when you are ordering items over the phone. Your identities can be stolen in a car burglary, mail theft (out of your mailbox), even the blue mailboxes are subject to theft of mail, because the theives “fish” for the mail at night or when no one is looking.

Suggestions:

Shred everything. Protect your Social Security Number (even your library may have your SSN on their screen: ask them to remove it!). Keep your important information in safekeeping. Worry about the bill you don’t get (it may have been stolen for the information on it). Check all three of the credit agencies at least twice a year. Know what is in your wallet, in case it gets stolen. Don’t sign the back of your credit card.

Also, there is an Identity Theft Resource Center that might be helpful.

The drawing was held, and Greg Drilling won the prize, a very nice wooden party dish.

Ruth Ann Hageman, Secretary