Medicare Fraud arrests might expose ties to medical identity theft and organized crime

Ever wonder why our social services are going bankrupt? Here is a story, from a FBI press release, showing how $101 million was paid out in fraudulent health care claims.Reading the release also made me wonder, where all the names to claim services, came from?From the FBI release:On May 22, 2007, a Miami federal grand jury returned a 46-count indictment against eight defendants in United States v. Mabel Diaz, et al., No. 07-20398-Cr-Ungaro. The indictment charges Mabel and Banner Diaz, wife and husband, with operating All-Med Billing Corp. (All-Med),...

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Google launches security awareness effort using the blogosphere

There is another effort to curb fraud, phishing and financial misdeeds in the blogosphere. This week, Google launched a blog called the "Google Online Security Blog," which is designed to protect their users from the sometimes dangerous (murky) waters on the Internet.In their own words (from their first post):Online security is an important topic for Google, our users, and anyone who uses the Internet. The related issues are complex and dynamic and we've been looking for a way to foster discussion on the topic and keep users informed. Thus, we've...

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Technology alone isn't going to stop phishermen and other cyber ghouls on the Internet

Not so long ago, I did a post about how the federal government was phishing their own employees.It didn’t surprise me that many of the phish took the bait, pretty easily. It would just mean that the federal employees, who were phished are no different from the general population on the Internet.After all, there wouldn’t be so much phishing, if it didn’t work.Apparently, the practice is catching on and Amy Joyce of the Washington Post did an interesting article about why the idea might be a good one.In the article, James MacDougall (South Carolina’s...

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Advance Fee credit schemes steal from people who are already in financial trouble

A Florida scam artist has been caught after ripping off thousands of people in what is known as an advance fee credit scheme. The scam -- which targets a market segment known as the under banked -- offers credit to people, who wouldn't qualify for it, otherwise.Although variations of advance fee schemes have been around for centuries, the global and anonymous nature of the Internet has enabled them to spread like a virus with the click of a mouse.In advance fee credit schemes, after paying a large fee in advance, the people don’t get the credit...

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Secret shopping jobs are liable to cost you a lot of money!

The Secret (Mystery) Shopper scam is running full steam and victimizing people, daily. The last time, I addressed this problem was in a post, where I noticed I was getting a lot of hits from Google on this subject. Recently, a lot of people have been reading my previous posts about this scam.Here is a basic description of the scam from my last post:In the Secret Shopper scam, people are solicited to become "Secret Shoppers" sometimes known as "Mystery Shoppers," and go into (normally) Walmart to negotiate a bogus check. Walmart recently got into...

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Equifax hires ID Thief

These days, identity theft is being used for more than to commit financial crimes. A woman in Georgia (Tonia Leach) discovered her identity was stolen after an inquiry showed up on her credit report from a temp agency and Equifax. The still not identified impostor used the woman’s identity to obtain employment at Equifax.When I say the impostor used the identity for more than committing financial crimes, I didn’t mean the victim wasn’t left with a lot of financial liability, as a result of this occurence.WSBTV.com (Georgia) reports:The woman also...

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Fake e-commerce sites steal personal and financial details

Not all the financial information being stolen comes from data breaches at large corporations. Quite often, it is inadvertantly given away by the victim, when they are tricked into doing so.If you see a website selling goods for prices that are too good to be true, it might be a ploy to steal your payment card details, or they are probably selling counterfeit merchandise.Dinah Greek, of Computeract!ve did a great piece of investigative journalisim, exposing one of these sites.Police are investigating what could turn out to be a massive scam, which...

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Eurasian organized crime loots public coffers

Well placed government sources claim that the government loses $300 billion a year in healthcare fraud - with about half of this figure being stolen from immigrant gangs - many of whom hail from the former Soviet Union.Troy Anderson of the LA Daily News reports on one small part of the overall problem:Lana Michael and her husband collected welfare benefits in 2003, claiming they earned less than $24,000.But authorities say Michael, the former office manager of a job-training center for immigrant welfare recipients, also owned a liquor store and...

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British citizens accused of child porn found to be fraud victims

Information (identity) theft sometimes leads to innocent people being charged with a crime. Recently, I've been reading about how British citizens were accused of viewing child pornography, when they were actually victims of credit card fraud.The Guardian did an excellent article about this, explaining how the porn industry supplements it's income with payment (debit/credit) card fraud. This explains how innocent people, who are victims of credit card fraud, get accused of crimes they didn't commit:One method used from 1999 by criminals, including...

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Does it really matter how well a bank protects their site?

Dark Reading had a story that caught my eye (courtesy of Bank Systems & Technology) stating that a 150 million people in the United States are scared of online banking.For fear of becoming the next victim of identity theft, 150 million U.S. consumers don't bank online, according to experts. But the banking industry could improve profitability by as much as $8.3 billion per year if banks build consumers' confidence in online security, according to the TriCipher Consumer Online Banking Study, conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research (Pleasanton,...

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Is Target's payment card and new refund procedure stopping retail criminal activity?

Will stricter return policies drive Target's customers, elsewhere? Some are saying their new return policy (which will require a receipt for cash returns of $20 or more) -- isn't very customer friendly --and might do just that. Some are also questioning, whether another policy (how they verify plastic transactions) is enabling fraud to occur within their four walls.So far as the new refund policy, Target's response is that this will affect a very small amount of its customers. Chris Serres, Star Tribune, Minneapolis - St. Paul gives Target's rationale...

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How to avoid getting your information stolen via wireless connections

Yesterday, I wrote about how the FBI is warning us that personal details can be stolen (i-jacked) when using public computers. This occurs using crimeware, previously installed on a public computer, logs the keys you are stroking and sends the information (electronically) to criminals.It can be dangerous to look at any of your online financial information on these (public access) machines.When writing about this phenomenon, I remembered that even using your personal computer at a public place with a wireless connection can expose a person's personal...

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TSA loses 100,000 employee records and discloses the matter, immediately

For the first time, I can remember a data-breach is being reported the day after it was discovered by an agency entrusted to protect and serve the public at large. Here is part of the press release from the Transportation Security Agency (TSA):Yesterday the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) became aware of a potential data security incident...

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You never know who might be selling hot merchandise on eBay

Normally, I avoid writing about petty crime, but this one is too good to pass up.From SF Gate:A Hillsboro mother found her daughter's missing winter coat on eBay, and now a teacher at the girl's elementary school faces charges of theft and computer crimes.The teacher, who was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of her trial, claims she found the jacket in the lost and found.Of course, Mom claims she had already checked there!With all the alleged fencing that occurs on auction sites, this person is either very unlucky, or doesn't...

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FBI warns of banking details being i-jacked (stolen) at Internet cafes and hotel business centers

It could be pretty expensive to check your online banking assets at Internet cafes, or at the public computer in a hotel's business center.Here is an interesting article by Robert Schmidt at Bloomberg.com, quoting FBI sources, where he says:Tens of millions of dollars have been looted from online brokerage accounts in a fast-growing fraud that targets unsuspecting hotel guests and Internet cafe patrons, Federal Bureau of Investigation officials say. The way this is done isn't new, the crooks simply install keylogging software on these public machines....

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Airline employees and correctional officer arrested for credit card fraud

A lot of payment (credit/debit) card fraud is caused by dishonest employees, who skim the information from cards; or might even simply forget to return them to you. And when they "forget" to return them, it might be intentional!The New York City District Attorney's Office announced:Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the arrest of four JetBlue employees and a New York City Department of Corrections Officer for the unauthorized use of credit cards from Jet Blue customers.Press release, here.Pretty scary, that Jet Blue...

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Washington Post exposes another reason why Katrina victims are still suffering

The hurricane disasters, and their commentary on social issues, continue to amaze me. To me, the rest of the world can learn a lot by studying the ongoing problems related to the disaster.The amount of money wasted, or lost to fraud (over a billion and growing) is a sad commentary, when a lot of the victims are still living in the now (infamous) FEMA trailers.Now a new allegation is being brought forth, which is that $854 million in aid promised by our allies, wasn't even accepted. I find this pretty interesting as people are suffering nearly two...

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Phishermen use call-forwarding scam to avoid detection when bank notes suspicious activity

Most of get a lot of phishy e-mails requesting personal and financial information from criminals pretending to be a trusted brand. Now they are adding a devious twist designed to beat fraud detection software, which is used by a lot of companies as a means to detect fraudulent transactions, early on.Herb Weisbaum of KOMOTV.com (Seattle) reports:The mass e-mail I saw claimed to be from Bank of America -- big banks are a prime target for these scams because they have so many customers.The e-mail says, "During our regular update and verification we...

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