A Difficult Situation

By Dr. Zahi Hawass

Hawass writes about a difficult situation.

Man often faces so many strange situations throughout his life.

Personally, I have faced this freak difficult situation.

I say that is the most difficult situations that I have ever experienced in my life.

The duty of the writer to record these situations so that the reader learns how to avoid these situation.

The story is the strangest.

Location: Los Angeles, USA Time: July 2019, at 1 pm on Thursday, July 25.

While I was sitting in my office at one of the city's science centers, the phone rang.

The speaker was an officer from the Social Security Unit.

After introducing himself to me, he said: "Someone in Dallas, USA,  has got your national number." I have this number since I was a student at the University of Pennsylvania as the student gets this number,  it remains with him for life but it doesn’t give him the right to obtain US citizenship.

I didn’t try to get that citizenship at any time.

The officer told me that this person had opened 20 bank accounts. He entered illegal funds and withdrew others.

Then he said we have verified that you haven’t done so, but at the same time there will be legal proceedings against you.

He said I will switch off the phone and another officer will talk to you. At this moment, I could not respond with a word.

I was trembling with fear and awe. At the same time, I found tears sprang out of my eyes rolled down my checks.

I imagined that even if I was innocent, the press here and in Egypt would write about guilt I did not commit.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again. Another officer spoke to me. There is a case brought against me, and he gave me the number and added another numbers.

He said you must immediately contact a lawyer to defend you,   you must prove your innocence and you will not be able to leave America; because you will remain here until the end of the case.

The officer continued to speak,  use legal terms and referred to the actions to would be taken against me.

That officer added that my bank account will be closed and all bank cards will be closed.

He went on to say I couldn’t withdraw one dollar from either the card or the bank account.

He pointed out that Los Angeles police will contact you immediately to solve that problem.

Of course, you can imagine how much terror I have experienced during this time so blood pressure leapt up. I felt hot in all parts of my body.

I could not answer to any question. A Los Angeles police officer, Alex Foster, called me later.

He repeated the same horrible words. He finally asked me about my bank account.

At this moment, I recovered my consciousness. I remembered that I don't have any bank account in the USA.

I told the officer that I have no bank account in the USA at all. I had one when I was a student at the University of Pennsylvania for 7 years and I closed it on departure to Egypt.

Then, when I was appointed a professor at the University of Nevada, I opened another account.

A year later, I closed it before I traveled.

The officer told me you have to ensure the money on your credit card. I replied I have an Egyptian account and another American one.

The officer said in this case, you have to insure it so you can withdraw it.

He asked if I knew any branch of Target” chain in the USA?

Then he added a log on Google to find place of a branch.

I said I am in a miserable condition so I can’t think.

He gave me an address and recommended me to this shop.

When you got there call me at once.

I got into a taxicab and headed for that shop.

I recalled that this could lead to jail and interrogation and he would like to inform the scientific center.

The secretary of the department came to me and called up the police.

The police said that this fraud is committed by a grass rooted gang work across the USA.

Everyone should be wary of all the means of electronic fraud through e-mails, phones or other social media platforms.

Means of manipulating become multiple and thieves master the invention of new ways with great ingenuity.

We must ask policemen and lawmen before getting involved in paws of these specialized gangs in many countries across the world.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar