Some of you may have noticed a certain similarity between Landsman’s Lagniappe, Vol. I, No. 2, and certain other elder law newsletters whose names I would not deign to mention. All of us were making use of that great story about Bank of America and the deceased borrower that Patty Dudek of Michigan reported in her newsletter. I would like to think mine was more interesting because I plagiarize at a higher level of sophistication than most of the competition.

This one’s more of the same. Lee Holmes, one of the great old guys [I was going to use a more familiar reference to gentleman of a certain age, but there probably aren’t enough four year old boys in the audience to appreciate my wit] of elder law, circulated a list of simple steps that every person can and should take to protect themselves against credit or identity theft. Others have used it; I have elaborated on it after (gasp) doing some research. Josh Ard, a thoughtful elder law attorney from my home state of Michigan, suggested looking at the National Consumer Law Center web cite, which I did, and have plagiarized without shame. You can do it (look, plagiarize, whatever) yourself at www.nclc.org/issues/seniors_initiative/identity_theft.shtml

Speaking of plagiarism, the rest of this lead item is largely taken from last month and the month before. This number has the same standard announcement about who I am and the disclaimer at the end. I am trying try to keep it light without for a moment forgetting that the topics we talk about are profoundly important to those whose lives are directly affected. I have not lost my limited authority to note that even at the worst of times, laughing is part of living, and I continue to hope this little newsletter carries that spirit.

Landsman’s Least Unpleasant Alternative Principle (LLUAP), also narrowly known (to wit, to me, until today) as the Universal Principle of Human Conduct (UPHC) stands for the proposition that a body faced with an unpleasant task will happily turn to it when confronted with a more unpleasant task. You will instantly understand and appreciate the rule when I tell you I discovered it during law school final exams when I noticed that my kitchen sink was unusually clean. Actually, the key moment came after I finished a cup of tea, put the empty cup and saucer in the sink, went back to my chair to study, and instantly got up, thinking, I Must Clean That Cup and Saucer! Archimedes could not have said it better: Eureka!

There is a corollary (I wasn’t a math jock for nothin’) – Greatest Effective Motivator for Human Conduct. Find some other task to do that is worse – you know, filing old bills, washing windows, cleaning the barbecue grill, telling your spouse or partner about ... (only you know what it is). Once you have something a little worse, the first job looks more attractive. Of course, this process will not work unless you really have to do the other task. Now, some of you may think there is a little flaw in this system. Depends on your capacity for denial.

That Principle and the Corollary came to mind when I saw Lee’s e-mail, emphasizing the first task – photocopying the contents of your wallet. Plainly, this task, with no immediate benefit, will be put off endlessly. How to get to it? See the First Corollary. Actually, if this task is too far down your unpleasant list, I’ll throw one or two on at the end that might get you going. (To be more honest than newsletter writing requires, I haven’t done the photocopy thing yet.)

The first group are things you should do now. The second has the contacts and numbers that you need to store now for use if and when a credit card (or more) is lost or stolen. The third has things you should continue to do.

1. Copy the contents of your wallet. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet if it is lost or stolen. More important, you will have all of the account numbers and all the phone numbers you need to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place.

You have no doubt heard that you should cancel your credit cards immediately after they are lost or stolen. But the key is having handy the toll free numbers and your account numbers so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them. That is the point of the photocopying – those cards have all the information you need.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, write "PHOTO ID REQUIRED." Most clerks won’t ask, but if it deters the thief, it served its purpose.

3. If you pay your credit card by check (some of us still do), do NOT write in the complete account number on the memo line. The last four digits is sufficient; the credit card company knows the first twelve.

4. Put your work telephone number rather than your home number on your printed check. Put a P.O. box number (if you have one) as your address, or your work address rather than your home address.

5. Never have your Social Security number printed on your checks. Do not provide it to anyone or have it printed or stored anyplace that it does not have to be. Needless to say, do not put your Social Security card or a copy of it in your wallet, and do not put your SSN on any paper or form in your wallet.

6. Do not put your personal identification numbers (PIN) for any account or card in your wallet or carry it on your person. If you cannot remember it, you may be too old to have a credit card; check your birth certificate.

If you think you are the victim of identity theft or credit card fraud, do not delay; do the following:

7. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an Investigation (if there ever is one).

8. Even more important – call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name. Also call the Social Security fraud line number, 800-269-0271. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you to authorize new credit. Here are the numbers you need to contact if a card or your entire purse or wallet is stolen:

1) EXPERIAN: Toll-free phone number: 1-888-EXPERIAN (1-888-397-3742), TTY (1-800-972-0322); Web site: http://www.experian.com/

9. Order a free copy of your credit report. See below, no. 15, for more information on free credit reports.

10. Contact all creditors and payees to find out if an account has been tampered with or opened without authority. This includes credit card companies, phone companies, utilities, and others with whom you do business. Ask to speak with someone in the security or fraud department and follow up with a letter. You should immediately close any accounts that have been tampered with and open new ones. Use new Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) when you open new accounts.

12. Get the receipt for all credit card purchases, even if you are going to throw it away (to make sure that it is thrown away).

13. If you do not get a regular monthly statement for any account (asset or credit), contact the bank, brokerage house, insurance company or credit card issuer.

14. Do not give out your SSN, PIN or any other personal or financial information in direct response to a telephone call or email. That includes e-mails from your mother – that you think is from your mother.

If by telephone – If someone calls and asks for information, ask who they are and why they want it, including company, position, and reason; then ask them for their telephone number and tell them you will call them back. Do so, but if you are not entirely satisfied, contact the company through any listed number.

If by computer – If you get an e-mail asking for information, do not use the link provided to respond. Its not that hard (especially for someone under 20) to create a web-site that looks to the unpracticed eye like a legitimate one. Instead, go on-line through your own web browser to the web-site of the company purportedly contacting you and log in on your account. If the company really wants information, it will ask then.

And remember – the more urgent the demand for information, the more likely it is fraudulent.

15. You are entitled to a free copy of your credit reports once a year and under special circumstances, one of which is that you have reason to think your report will be wrong due to fraud. The three reporting agencies have a centralized system for providing these free reports. You can get your report in one of three ways:

3) Get the Annual Credit Report Request Form (You can print the form at www.ftc.gov/credit) and complete it and mail it to:

Do not contact the three nationwide Consumer Reporting Agencies individually; they only provide free annual credit reports through the sources listed above. You may order your free annual reports from each of the three nationwide Consumer Reporting Agencies at the same time, or you can order from only one or two.

You can also get a free report if (a) you request a copy within 60 days of being denied credit because of information in a report; (b) you are unemployed and intend to apply for a job within 60 days or; (c) you are receiving public assistance, as well as the fraud and annual report situations. Otherwise, a report costs about $9.50.

The Stanton Box

Doris Keaerns Goodwin’s otherwise excellent Team of Rivals gives too little shrift to Edwin McMasters Stanton, Lincoln’s second Secretary of War and the one who, with Lincoln and Grant, was the third leg of the stool that held up the North’s war effort. His selection by Lincoln was a monument to Lincoln’s profound sense of priorities and his amazing ability to put aside personal pique in the name of principled action. Their contact with each other went back to a law suit in Cincinnati in 1856; though on the same side, Stanton thought Lincoln a fool, “the original gorilla.” After the war started, Stanton was friendly with Gen. McClellan and they shared stories of Lincoln’s incompetence. But when Lincoln needed a new secretary of war in 1862, Stanton was the obvious choice – a Mid-Westerner, a Democrat, a strong Unionist, a brilliant and persistent litigator with substantial government management and contract experience, a former member of Buchanan’s cabinet. Lincoln offered him the position and Stanton accepted. Stanton went on to become Lincoln’s strongest supporter within the cabinet. “Never did we so misjudge a man as in Cincinnati” Stanton later told one of his old colleagues. And it was he who was credited with the statement, in the moments after Lincoln’s death, “Now, he is for the ages.”

Speaking of credit reporting agencies, when you are done with protecting yourself against credit card fraud and identity theft– or perhaps in lieu of that, under the First Corollary – you can turn to the related task of getting rid of those irritating credit offers. You can prevent credit card issuers and others from bombarding you with offers FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, BETTER THAN THE PRIME RATE NO ANNUAL FEE, most of which come from companies that buy reports from those credit reporting agencies noted above. The “Opt Out” program, operated by the Federal Trade Commission, requires the credit reporting agencies to exclude you from further sales of names for that purpose. You can fill out a simple form and within a few weeks you will notice that your mail lightens noticeably. Contact http://opt-out.cdt.org/ or google the Federal Trade Commission - it has information on its web site.

My motto is Log On, Turn In, Opt Out. Speaking of plagiarism, I think I stole that from Timothy Leary.

I know this does not apply to any Lagniappians, but the best scams are ones that take advantage of the larceny in the scamee’s heart. If those Nigerian money laundering scams ever work, it’s because someone out there thinks he or she can rip off the Nigerian government or treasury. “EARN QUICK MONEY AT HOME” sounds too easy, and it is. Early in my career, I helped a young widow collect on life insurance where the agent claimed, in not so many words, that she and her late husband had joined him in not disclosing the husband’s sickle cell anemia. (The agent was the only scammer, and paid for his wrong, although not enough.) If you try to get a little benefit from a scam and get scammed in return, you are hardly in a position to claim foul. That is how most scams succeed. But I am sure none of my Lagniappians have to worry about that – just pass it on to your brother-in-law.

Elder and disability law firm – Ron M. Landsman, P.A., is an elder and disability law firm headed by Ron M. Landsman, who has worked in this area of the law since 1983. We represent older and disabled people, their families and advocates. The work we do includes estate, disability and retirement planning, probate, estate and trust administration, wills, trusts and powers of attorney, titling of assets and designation of beneficiaries, protective proceedings (guardianship and conservatorship), special needs trusts and public benefits – Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and SSI.

Special Needs Alliance – Ron M. Landsman is a Maryland-D.C. member of the Special Needs Alliance, Inc., a nationwide network of attorneys especially knowledgeable about coordinating public benefits and private resources through different kinds of special or supplemental needs trusts. We and our colleagues assist disabled people, their families, estate attorneys and personal injury attorneys in enhancing the resources of disabled individuals – savings and investments, inheritances, settlements or judgments – by coordinating them with public benefits like SSI and Medicaid. We also manage such trusts or advise family members or bank trustees who manage them. For more information on the Special Needs Alliance, visit its website at www.specialneedsalliance.com.

SR Alliance – Ron M. Landsman is a member of the SR Alliance of Montgomery County, Maryland, a network of professionals working with the elderly and their families. They bring their different expertise – financial planning, accounting, home renovation, real estate, long term care insurance, personal organizing, mortgages, and geriatric care – to bear as required or requested for a client. What they have in common is a particular sensitivity to the fact of being elderly, respect for their clients, and a willingness to go the extra mile to see that work is done and done well. For more information on the SR Alliance, visit its website at www.srasubmd.com.

Please share Landsman’s Lagniappe with anyone interested in the elderly and disabled and their advocates. (That’s the whole point.) You may copy and use anything in this newsletter, but if you don’t credit us at the outset, no fair blaming us later.

If you would like to get Landsman’s Lagniappe or you would like to change the form in which you receive it or want to be removed from our mailing list, please email us at newsletter@ronmlandsman.com, or call Sanja Pirsl at 240-403-4300, ext. 106, or fax her at 240-403-4301. No charge. That’s big of me.

If your group is having trouble sleeping and is looking for something really soporific, Ron Landsman is available to talk on any number of topics, including some that he knows about – Medicaid, Lincoln, planning for disability, Medicaid, planning for the disabled child, Medicaid, and that always lively topic, probate in Maryland and D.C., as well as Medicaid. If you are interested, call Sanja Pirsl at 240-403-4300, ext. 106.

I was all set to put in another “anonymous” item when, much to my amazement, a reader did write. Lynn Johnson, of Johnson and Pavuk, apparently not having enough billable work to keep her out of trouble, wrote to question the wisdom of my giving the race of the DMV clerk who was sympathetic to a recently bereaved young widower.

There was no causal reason in this story to describe her race. Some would argue that by describing her race, the author's implication is that it is even more surprising that a black person would be so caring. Now I know you well enough, Ron, to know that was not your intent. As a public author now, we are allowed to raise the bar on your journalistic standards.

I thought about whether to note the woman’s race. I put it in the category of giving credit where credit is due. Race is a fact of life in America, and to -- you should excuse the expression -- whitewash it out of daily discourse does a disservice to our daily reality. I think that reporting an especially positive exchange between people of different races is to be commended. Its not that it is unusual that prompted me to note it -- it happens a lot more than one would think from public discourse -- but that it is not enough publicly noted. Looked at from the longer view, isn’t this proscription of race from public discourse the reaction to the older style that seemed to emphasize race when crime was involved, especially black suspects with white victims. To go to the other extreme is as unwise as reading the 14^th Amendment as color-blind. I think it was Lyndon Johnson who said that making government race-neutral for the cause of equality after keeping one race hobbled for a century was cynicism of the highest order. Well, that last part was mine. And maybe it was Martin Luther King. Jr., who said the first part. I dunno, that detail is not important. It was a great truth spoken in the 60s when we as a people were more honest about our history.

We hope you find this to be a good newsletter, but it is not the same as legal counsel. A free newsletter is ultimately worth everything it costs you; you rely on it at your own risk. Good legal advice includes a review of all of the facts of your situation, including many that may at first blush seem to you not to matter. The plan it generates is sensitive to your goals and wishes while taking into account a whole panoply of laws, rules and practices, many not published. Whether it’s worth the cost is for you to decide.

Ron M. Landsman, P.A., 200-A Monroe Street, Suite 110, Rockville, Maryland 20850

Internet: www.ronmlandsman.com – Email: askron@ronmlandsman.com

Telephone: 240-403-4300 – Fax Number: 240-403-4301