LifeLock

Tara Campbell, of Crisfield, MD stole the identities of three elderly residents at the Lakeside Assisted Living during the three months she worked there in 2007 and 2008. One of her victims has Alzheimer’s Disease, and another has since died. She used their information to take out credit cards and charged more than $8,600 to them.

“To steal the identities of elderly people, especially one who has Alzheimer’s, is unfathomable,” said Paul Montemuro, assistant state’s attorney. “It’s really a terrible crime because this was when people are (sic) at their most vulnerable.”

This particular identity theft case may be unfathomable to Montemuro, but, as someone who reads and writes about identity theft every day, I know that crimes like this one happen everyday.

I find these cases especially disturbing because my parents are in their 80s and my mother has Alzheimer’s Disease. Though Mom’s been able to stay in her own home so far, we dread the day we have to move her to a secured memory-care facility. We’ve already started researching local assisted living facilities, but we know that no matter how pretty, clean and bright her next home may be, she’ll be painfully vulnerable to her caregivers there.

LifeLock reviews identity theft trends regularly, and creates new strategies to combat identity thieves who seek out victims who are most vulnerable.

When you’re faced with the heartache of a parent’s decline, disease or death, you don’t need the additional outrage of their becoming an identity theft victim. I urge anyone with elderly parents to help protect them with identity theft protection from LifeLock.

To learn more about how LifeLock helps to protect their members, visit their website at LifeLock.com. Enroll using the discount code Defense (referred to as a promotion code on their site) to receive a discount on service.