As we all know, your identity can be stolen on the Internet. I wanted to write about a Government employee and a hoax Email.
Last week I had received an email regarding COSTCO and generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. The email got my attention, and so I read the article. But at the bottom of the article were the person's name, her title, her Government agency, room number, email address, and office telephone and office fax numbers. Now, not only was all this information included in the signature of this message, but the U.S. Department of Commerce's SEAL was there as well.
NOW, this REALLY got my attention. Being a retired Department of Commerce/NOAA employee, I knew emails like this did not go out to the public. So, I called this person, and asked if the article was sent by her. Her answer was ABSOLUTELY NOT!
She stated to me, "I had absolutely nothing to do with the research or writing of this article. As I've discovered, it is very easy to have your identity stolen on the internet, and in this case, someone has used my name as a government employee to try to validate this email."
She has had to change her office phone numbers, and remove her title, and other information from her email signature. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Seal is never added in a public email message. The person(s) writing this hoax downloaded the seal from the Commerce web site.
I'm not going into detail about what was in the email, but you can read about this hoax, at the following website http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/genericrx.html
I was told early in life don't believe everything you read, and that goes for EVERYTHING WE RECEIVE VIA E-MAIL.
P.S. - If you receive an email, and not sure of its authenticity, go to www.snopes.com
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