id theft « protecting privacy

May 16, 2010

Prevent medical id fraud

Filed under: medical identity theft — Tags: how to prevent medical identity theft, id theft, right to privacy, your rights to privacy — admin @ 3:15 pm

This article provides a quick reference guide on how to prevent medical identity theft. The crime of medical id fraud is growing rapidly and through assertiveness of one’s right to privacy, it is possible for individuals to prevent medical id fraud.

Stand alone and DO NOT relinquish your rights to privacy.

Keeping that new doctor’s clerks happy is a surefire way to the poor house. The literature is full of id theft fraud cases, and medical id fraud is going through the roof at an average case damage figure of $20,000.00.

Here is a list designed to help you avoid that $20,000.00 loss while preventing medical identity theft.

1.) Insist on your privacy. Do not be intimidated by the perceived authority-type figures who represent doctors in the often, rude form of medical office clerks. Develop the proper attitude and recognize that how you think and act is Everything.

2.) Once you have had your behavioral adjustment, take a deep breath and relax. Prepare to not provide your Social Security number to medical providers-Ever.

3.) Recognize that medical identity theft can come from an inside job. Click here to see one such example. Now, do you really want Ms. Clerk to take possession of your most crucial, confidential and personal information?

4.) Provide your insurance policy number and carrier Only at the time of service. DO NOT provide it over the phone to the clerk who wants to verify your coverage two weeks prior to your appointment. Will she even be working there in two weeks?

M.D.’s and their army of medical clerks, X-Ray technicians, medical billing staff, and the rest are there to service your medical needs, not to intimidate you into giving up your privacy rights. Exercise your rights to privacy and do the opposite of what the masses do, and you will be on the way to preventing medical id theft.

Grant Hall

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May 14, 2010

Avoid medical identity theft by becoming an id watchdog

Filed under: medical identity theft — Tags: Grant Hall, id theft, identity fraud, identity insurance, identity protection, Prevent Identity Theft, privacy — admin @ 9:14 am

This article explains behavioral considerations for consumer privacy. By becoming their own id watchdog, consumers can avoid medical identity theft without costly identity insurance.

How to become an id watchdog

Pay attention and be assertive. Who do you trust? Recognize the high turnover at clerical-type jobs in medical offices, hospitals and testing facilities. Do you really want a copy of your state issued drivers license on file at these places? What about your Social Security number being included in the aforementioned companies’ data base files? How about having part-time clerks knowing your home address?

For some reason, Americans and others seem to roll over like timid little puppy dogs whenever someone of perceived authority asks them for their most personal and confidential information. Instead of being a passive puppy, it’s time to become an id watchdog.

Medical identity theft costs about $20,000.00 per case

The statistics are truly alarming!

Imagine becoming a victim of the leading fraud crime in the world today, identity theft and having your name stolen for the purpose of stealing medical services and treatment from your insurance company with you as the insured. The following statistics are taken from this website:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10460902-245.html

These are direct quotes from the above website:

“About 9 percent of U.S. adults have been victims of identity fraud and, of those, nearly 6 percent are estimated to have been victims of medical-related identity fraud, which translates to 1.4 million people, according to survey results and population extrapolations from the National Study on Medical Identity Theft report from the Ponemon Institute. The report was sponsored by credit reporting firm Experian.”

As if nine percent of U.S. adults having to suffer through a “garden variety” id theft at an approximate average cost of $3,000 was not enough, the new leading fraud crime, medical identity theft, is the most expensive at $20,000.00 per shot, and is the new leading fraud crime subcategory of id theft.

Avoid identity theft and prevent medical identity theft with these privacy living tactics:

1. Do not give your drivers license to medical providers. Instead, of the DL, provide a passport.

2. Do not provide a Social Security number to medical providers.

3. Never tell anyone where you live unless you want them to visit you where you sleep.

4. Use an anonymous cell phone.

5. Register you car in the name of a trust.

6. Bank anonymously and keep your home and business registrations private.

The above is a good start. I’m sure the 9% of U.S. adults who suffer from an id theft wish they had implemented these plans. And the 6% who have to go through a medical identity theft surely wish they had as well.

It’s not too late!

Begin to take your personal privacy seriously and recognize that your private information is your business only, not the clerk who takes orders from the corporation that manages your Doctor’s office.

Thanks.

Grant Hall

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May 5, 2010

medical identity theft prevention and patient behavior

Filed under: medical identity theft — Tags: avoid identity theft, id theft, identity protection, identity theft victim, Personal Privacy, protect your identity — admin @ 10:46 am

Based on the available research concerning the medical identity theft epidemic, most cases could have been prevented.

Avoid becoming an identity theft victim.

Worried about id theft and the cost of the fastest growing segment of identity theft fraud, medical identity theft? Consider your behavior as a medical patient as a highly effective means of identity protection.

The statistics below come from the following website:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/030310-medical-identity-theft.html

It will pay you to avoid medical identity theft as the average cost is over $20,000 per id theft and 5.8% of American adults have had their identity stolen for the purpose defrauding a medical provider in order to use available medical benefits of the identity theft victim.

Assertiveness training will help you avoid identity theft while protecting your personal privacy.

I know you’re sick or injured and in pain when you see that new physician, and you may not feel like bucking the system to protect your identity. And your first contact will be with his staff of clerks who attempt to justify their salaries by collecting every bit of information possible-just in case they need it to track and trace you if you are late on your co-payment, or try to skip out on the bill. That’s why Ms. Senior Clerk will badger you for your employment information, home telephone number, date of birth, drivers license and Social Security number.

Be extra careful and guard your insurance data and personal data to preserve and protect yourself from a medical identity theft.

Today’s entry level work force changes so often that you have no idea what new clerk is going to see your personal and confidential information next month or the month after that, or whenever the doctors change personnel to manage their front office. You could be empowering an undesirable character if you allow your important data to be entered into medical provider data bases.

For the best possible defense against the crime of medical identity theft, do not share you home address, banking information, home telephone number or Social Security number with others.

High level privacy living may save you the $20,000 that the average medical identity theft costs today.

Thanks.

Grant Hall

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April 30, 2010

id theft and how to prevent medical identity theft

Filed under: medical identity theft — Tags: avoid medical identity theft, fraud crime, id theft, medial identity thief, medical identity theft, Prevent Identity Theft — admin @ 2:30 pm

This article emphasizes the behavioral aspects of id theft protection with a focus on medical identity theft, the fastest growing fraud crime sub category of identity theft fraud. Readers are invited to comment and write the author with questions.

Prevent identity theft

Identity theft prevention is most important as fixing an identity fraud crime is expensive in terms of actual dollars as well as hours spent to restore your good name.

The implementation of a high-level privacy living plan is preferred over the purchase of costly identity theft insurance and is more effective in the opinion of this author. The author recommends high-level privacy living as a means of identity theft “self insurance”.

Identity theft insurance plans lock the policy holder into payment of perpetual premiums. Additionally, one who buys the insurance will be required to provide highly sensitive and privacy-invasive personal and confidential information to the insurance company, and this information may be available to many thousands of people who access the data base where this information is stored.

Avoid Medical Identity Theft

Id theft fraudsters are honing in on victims who own medical insurance policies. Consider these fraud statistics that are direct quotes from this website:

http://www.insurancefraud.org/medicalidentitytheft.htm

“Medical Identity Theft”

“More than 1.4 million people have been victimized by medical identity theft. Victims pay about $20,000 each to resolve their cases, and more than half say they had to pay for medical care they didn’t receive in order to restore health coverage. Nearly half of victims also lost health coverage due to the fraud, and nearly one-third said their health premiums rose after they were victimized. Fewer than 10 percent say their incidents were completely resolved. (Ponemon Institute, 2010)
Medical identity theft is the fastest-growing form of identity theft. (World Privacy Forum, 2006)

Between 250,000 and 500,000 Americans have been victimized by medical identity theft. (World Privacy Forum, 2006)

Medical identity theft comprises about 3 percent (249,000) of 8.3 million overall victims of identity theft. (Federal Trade Commission, Identity Theft Survey Report, 2007)”

Based on the above statistics, and the average cost of $20,000 to repair a medical identity theft fraud crime and the quarter of a million reported cases during 2007, it becomes clear that the crime of medical identity theft is becoming an elite score for criminals, and is far and above the average cost of the garden variety, id theft crime of $3,000, (Hall, 2006)

If and when you receive medical treatment, you will want to guard your most sacred identifiers with extreme caution. These include: insurance policy number, insurance company name, name, date of birth, home address, home telephone number, and your most personal of all, your Social Security number.

Avoid identity theft by making behavioral preparations

Prepare for battle.

When you face the Army of clerks who staff the practices of Physicians today, you will necessarily have to provide your insurance policy information and proof of your identity.

Successful privacy advocates do not provide their home address, home telephone number or Social Security number prior to receiving medical treatment due to the risk of having this information stolen by a medical identity thief.

What’s your “social”?

Clerks bark out the question and expect answers or else…..

Stop the nonsense!

You don’t have to participate with the masses who bow and cow to the agents of the authority-types, (Doctors). In fact, if an identity theft prevention plan is at the top of your agenda-and it should be, your risk is undoubtedly higher when your allow your SSN to be obtained by medical providers than if you do not provide it. This is my experienced opinion.

I do not provide my Social Security number to medical providers and believe to do so would place my identity at risk of being stolen. And I, for one, do not want to risk losing $20,000 due to a medical identity theft fraud crime. So, instead, I choose to exercise my assertiveness and negotiate my way toward cooperating with medical providers while still providing “necessary” personal information.

Thanks for reading.

Grant Hall

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How to Prevent Identity Theft through Home Privacy Living

Filed under: identity protection — Tags: alternate name, avoid identity theft, create a new identity, id theft, new identity, offshore address, preventing identity theft, victim of identity theft — admin @ 5:47 am

This article will focus on how to prevent identity theft through privacy living principles that preserve one’s most sacred personal privacy asset; the place he/she calls home.

Create a new identity and avoid identity theft

For the highest level of home privacy, create a new identity by assuming an alternate name for privacy purposes. Without a name tied to the property where you live, an identity thief will have no idea how to find you, and efforts to locate you through traditional spy techniques including county property records and credit bureau files will fail.

How can you create a new identity? Begin using a “pen name” or an alternate name for privacy purposes in order to avoid identity theft, and the high costs associated with this leading fraud crime.

Your new identity is for privacy living and you will continue to use your true name for all official business matters.

Offshore address

An offshore mailing address will enable you to create a location illusion.

Potential identity thieves who go to the extra effort of tapping into data bases containing your true name will discover your offshore address through records kept by those who have it. An offshore mailing address is a huge privacy advantage and will help you avoid identity theft. Criminals who case your residence will not find supporting identity information to make you a worthwhile id theft target.

Behavioral considerations

Are you serious about preventing identity theft? Are you prepared to assume a new identity for the purposes of privacy living. There are ramifications to high-level privacy living that you must consider.

Socialization may be modified for the purpose of developing a plan to avoid being a victim of identity theft. For instance, rather than having a birthday party at your home, you may elect to preserve home privacy by meeting friends, relatives, and friends of friends at a public place.

Thanks for reading.

Grant Hall

Comments (1)

April 13, 2010

Protect Yourself from Identity Theft with Free Identity Theft Protection

Filed under: identity protection — Tags: avoid a privacy invasion, business id theft, free identity theft protection, id theft, id watchdog, Prevent Identity Theft, privacy living, protect yourself from identity theft — admin @ 10:01 am

Id theft protection should be a primary concern for everyone as both business identity theft and personal identity theft are on the rise.

Business identity theft protection and personal id theft protection are best accomplished through privacy living, not identity theft insurance policies in the very experienced opinion of this author and privacy advocate. Free identity theft protection measures can be implemented once you learn the ropes of privacy living.

The use of entities to hold title to your automobile, house and business will protect identity without the need for those perpetual identity theft insurance premiums. Such a plan of shielding your travel, living and work from a would-be identity thief, enables you to control your workplace privacy and personal privacy.

Why would you want to entrust part-time employees or others who work for an insurance company with your true name, Social Security number, home telephone number, home address, place of employment, and other data? Identity theft insurance is a horrible idea in the opinion of this writer. The best way to practice id theft protection is to adopt a privacy living standard that will prevent identity theft.

The use of Trusts, Limited Liability companies and Limited Partnerships have been used to enhance privacy living and enable one to travel, live and work anonymously. You may prevent identity theft through the use of front entities that enable you to hide and disappear from a criminal who has targeted you for id theft.

Becoming an Id watchdog to prevent identity theft is well worth the effort. The average identity theft costs about $3,000 to fix and may take years of your time as well. Business id theft is a more expensive crime and may cost upwards of $10,000.

Protect yourself from identity theft through privacy living and you can avoid the high costs of identity insurance and avoid a privacy invasion that may occur while sharing personal and confidential information with personnel who work for an insurance company.

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