Identity Theft

And it might not be for the reason you hoped for. He could be suspecting you of falsifying a tax return – especially if you haven’t filed yet for 2011. That’s because an identity thief may have filed for you – and taken advantage of your refund. According to ABC News, the IRS intercepted over $1.4 billion in funds that were stolen thanks to identity theft related to taxes. Oftentimes, consumers don’t find out until they try to file their legitimate returns and are told that they are filing duplicates.

Other ways that this crime can occur are if an individual uses your Social Security number on a job application – so that the income is attributed to you even though you are not receiving it – or if he or she claims one of your dependents as his or her dependent – again using a stolen Social Security number.

If any of these crimes happen to you, it will no doubt delay your return. In addition, you may have to spend money and a good deal of time clearing your name. Makes you wish you had filed that return early; doesn’t it?

A good way to know if any of these crimes have occurred is if you get a notice in the mail from the IRS. The notice will say one of the following things:

• You have filed more than one return for the same Social Security number
• You earned income from a source that you are unfamiliar with
• You owe for a year when you had no income or for another reason were not required to file taxes

If any of these occurrences have happened to you, call the IRS immediately at 1-877-ID-THEFT to determine what your next steps should be. It’s likely you will have to fill out a written report detailing the crime. If you don’t have identity theft protection, purchase a service as soon as possible, and file on January first next year.

 

 

When you receive your explanation of benefits in the mail after paying a visit to the doctor, you may feel like you are being robbed due to the high charges. However, if you are Anne Peters, MD, the financial crimes committed against you are the real thing. Dr. Peters was the victim of a fairly common but rarely talked about form of fraud: physician identity theft.

Peters first learned about this crime approximately six years ago when doctors in her home state of California started phoning her. The other doctors’ patients were telling them that Peters was billing for procedures she hadn’t performed. This was the first she had heard of it. Medicare was paying out these claims, but the money was not going to Peters.

Peters reported the crimes to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which did not serve her well at first. She was prosecuted for grand theft, to the tune of over $650,000, and she was asked to pay back taxes on the Medicare payments…. so much for being an honest whistle blower.

It’s likely that the thief was able to use Peters’ information to perpetrate this scam because he got a hold of her physician credentialing numbers. That’s pretty much all you need to impersonate and doctor on paper, and security is rather lax. According to Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum, “This information is far too publicly available … It’s really out there.”

The government has taken some steps recently to make it easier for victimized physicians to clear their names. For example, the Center for Program Integrity now offers a remediation initiative. This is not enough, though, and one of the problems is politics. While some say greater protection is needed for doctors, other attest that it would be too cumbersome to put in additional safeguards when so many organizations in the medical field need access to physician credentials.

One of the biggest helps right now is moving the issue into the public eye. Peters complains that there was no one she could speak with regarding the identity theft that happened to her. “I couldn’t get anyone to believe I was innocent.”

 

Filing for a marriage license is normally a joyous occasion. It means the big day is approaching and the preparations are almost done. However, for Anna Vargas of New York City, it was just the beginning of an arduous journey.  It all started when she lost her birth certificate over 16 years ago, which gave identity thieves access to her personal information. She found out when she applied for her license that, by using this information, two men had already legally married her – without her knowledge, one from Mexico and one from Peru. The city clerk rejected her application.

Though Vargas was eventually permitted to go through with her nuptials – after registering for her marriage license in another jurisdiction – her identity theft nightmare continued. Three years after her real wedding, one of her “husbands” filed for divorce. Somehow, he obtained her mother in law’s address and actually showed up at her house, papers in hand.

After that event, Vargas decided it was time to clear her name, and she finally had the two “marriages” legally nullified with the state. However, she soon after discovered that she is “married” to another man. This case is still ongoing.

How wonderful to be that popular that so many men want to marry you, especially when they do so without letting you know. Though thieves sometimes steal American identities for immigration purposes, this case is pretty extreme. It also shows failure on the part of the New York judicial system in letting all of these marriages go through.

Regardless, Vargas should have taken care of the two “marriages” as soon as she learned about them, instead of letting them stand for another three years. Who knows what else the thieves have been doing with her information during that time? They may even have some fictional children by now.

This also emphasizes an important point about safeguarding your birth certificate. You should never put yourself in a situation where you are able to lose this document. Leave it in a safe deposit box, or at least in a fireproof safe in your home, unless it is imperative that you take it out, such as if you need it to apply for a passport. You should not need it to apply for a job, a place to live, or for credit. If you’re asked for it in these circumstances, you need to find out why this is necessary before agreeing.

An identity theft protection service could have likely prevented these marriages. When the thieves registered their licenses with the state, Vargas would have been notified. Perhaps, these policies weren’t available when the “blessed events” took place, but one hopes that Vargas has signed up for one of these services at least now.

Identity theft doesn’t always have to do with finance. Sometimes it simply involves something that can be even more valuable than money: your good name. One of the most bizarre instances of identity theft in the news lately involved the social networking site, Facebook, a bitter ex-girlfriend and a police officer in New Jersey.

Dana Thornton, 43, dated detective Michael Lasalandra for a period of three months back in 2007. Apparently, the breakup didn’t go so well, since – as revenge – she Thornton decided to put up a social networking page in Lasalandra’s name, essentially slandering him with the posts she made. On the page, she made reference to the fact that she – posing as her ex – was “sum with a gun” interested in drugs, booze, and other illegal activities.

Lasalandra told police about the page after discovering it in 2009, and Thornton was charged with identity theft the next year, although she recently reached a plea bargain where the charges will be dropped if she completes a mandatory counseling program.

If the charges hadn’t been dropped, this case would have been one of the first where identity theft legally applied in regards to the creation of a fraudulent online ID. A judge had already ruled that this crime did meet the legal definition of identity theft.

While it is normal for breakups not to go well, and it is normal to be a little bitter, going for identity theft because of it is going way too far. Many see posting things on Facebook as a bit of a harmless prank, but this is not the case. With millions of people on the site: employers, politicians, law enforcement … it is very important to be portrayed in a positive light. Negative postings can severely harm your credibility.

Social networking sites often seem to be behind the times when it comes to preventing their members from being victims of identity theft. Due to crimes like this one, Facebook  have added a security feature to the site to help flag potentially fraudulent accounts. Users are asked to enter a phone number so that Facebook can call and verify the accounts. If they fail to enter a number, they can no longer log in.

Of course, this is not foolproof, and may not even resolve all the issues. There are thousands of people who have fake social networking accounts for various reasons, and it is nearly impossible to detect all of them. However, this can somehow become an identity guard. The best advice I can give you is to do a search for your name on the most popular social networking sites periodically to see if an account has been set up without your knowledge. If you spot one, immediately request that the site take it down, and notify law enforcement of the fraud. What can start off as a joke – or a silly case of revenge – can quickly turn serious. Don’t let yourself be victimized in this way.

Is surviving identity theft six times an accomplishment or a disappointment? For Stacey Cowley, the tech editor for CNN Money, it is both. She recently told USAA magazine about how she has had many different thieves access her bank accounts periodically over the past eight years. She blames the first time on using a “sketchy ATM,” meaning one that wasn’t at or near a financial institution but instead on the street next to a local deli. The ATM was altered so that it recorded both her card number and her PIN. Then a thief used her information to order pizza in a town several states over.

But that is the least of it. It’s pretty easy to recover the cost of a pizza, but it takes a little more work if the thief decides to purchase something larger. Say, a Mercedes. Convincing all parties involved that this property is not yours (even if you wish it were) can take many hours, many dollars and many headaches. Well, unless you have identity theft protection in place before such a crime happens to you. While protection plans are focused on prevention for the most part, many also offer services to help you if you are victimized, such as insurance policies to cover your expenses, even such things as lost wages if you have to spend the day at the Social Security office.

That being said, even with an identity protection plan in place you should still be careful. Cowley learned that she should keep a bit of cash on hand at home just in case a thief got hold of her debit card and she suddenly had to cancel it. She also learned not to carry all of her credit cards with her and to never have just one credit account. While these items can be replaced, they cannot be replaced immediately, and you don’t want to leave yourself in a lurch. She was left begging friends for lunch money for about seven days.

As far as “sketchy” ATMs go, just use your better judgment. If you have a bad feeling about a machine, or it looks like it has been tampered with, move on to the next one. There are few places in this country that don’t have an overabundance of bank machines, and you can charge most things on your debit card anyway. It could end up saving you a whole lot of money in the long run, plus a whole lot of aggravation.