Victims’ Families Victimized Again

Scam artists, collecting names of people pictured on hundreds of posters plastered on telephone poles in Manhattan or Web sites and newspapers since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, may be using them to call victims’ families to ask for personal information in an identity theft scheme, Nassau County officials warned Friday.

At least five families have been targeted in Nassau, police said.

“Anybody who would prey on grieving families at a time like this is nothing less than a ghoul or a monster,” Nassau County Executive Thomas S. Gulotta said during a news conference aimed at warning families not to release any information over the phone.

The scammers, he warned, pose as New York City police detectives. Claiming that some of the victim’s personal information was lost, they ask family members for Social Security numbers, birth dates and mothers’ maiden names.