Got Your Identity?

All of us have heard about identity theft, but do you know the possible implications of and identity theft case? Having your identity stolen is more than just losing your social security number, it includes your bank account information, your credit card number’s, as well as ruining your credit score. If you were to have someone steal your identity and ruin your credit score, the interest rate on your home could double or even triple! If you figure the math for your own home, you could be looking at thousands of dollars lost, plus the enormous amount of time and money you would have to spend trying to recover your original credit score.

Identity Theft Protection

Joining Forces

That is why there is Protect My ID online who has partnered up with Equifax to ensure that your identity is not stolen. They use a variety of techniques to make sure that your identity is not stolen such as scanning the internet for usage of your credit card, social security number or unauthorized inputs of your social security number. If any of this information was to be stolen from you, the damage is crippling. The way that it works is if anyone were to try and open either a bank account, or take out a line of credit in your name it would show up on your credit report. Most Americans check there credit report less than once a year, but with Protect My ID, they will scan your credit reports on a daily basis looking for any suspicious activity, as well as confirming your activities with you.

Constant Internet Scans

Along with the credit report scanning, the team at Protect My ID will scan the internet daily looking for any usage of your credit card number, and especially your social security number. By scanning the internet on a daily basis, Protect My ID will be able to alert you as soon as a breach of your identity is made, and will even help you fix the problem. By working side by side with one of Protect My ID’s fraud protection agents, you will be able to file the necessary paper work as well as make the proper calls to fix all problems that could arise.

Changing Your Address Scams

Don't Let It Happen to You

Another safe guard that is part of Protect My ID is a change of address feature. Many times individuals who are looking to steal your identity will do so thru changing your address with creditors or the post office so that they will receive your confidential mail. Protect My ID has teamed up with the United states Post Office as well as many of the worlds largest lenders to monitor this activity. If someone tries to change your address or has successfully changed your address, you will know about it and will be able to fix the problem before any real harm is done.

$1,000,000 Guarantee

The most lucrative part of a Protect My ID account is the $1,000,000 dollar guarantee. This means that if you were to have your identity stolen while you were a customer in good standing (have an active Protect My ID account), you will be compensated up to $1,000,000 dollars. This will protect you against things such as:

• Lost wages due to identity theft
• Legal fees associated with an identity theft case( as long as you follow the guidance of your Protect my ID fraud specialist)
• Reimbursement of funds stolen from bank accounts or credit cards that the bank does not refund
• As well as other expenses common with an identity theft case

Protect Your Children’s Identity

Finally one of the fastest growing identity theft cases is the identity theft of children. This is also covered however with a small monthly fee. With Child Secure, which is run through your Protect My ID account, you will be able to protect your children from the same type of identity theft problems. Child identity theft can be just as serious as it is for adults due to tax purposes as well as credit score problems.

Conclusion:

In today’s world with the use of WIFI internet ports, as well as the internet not being as secure as many of us would like to think, Protect My ID is a simple solution to take this fear away. Identity theft is a serious problem, the number of identities stolen increases on a yearly basis. One of my cousins personally had their identity stolen and it took him three years to be able to fully recover his funds as well as repair his credit back to its original state.

Health care is expensive enough without worrying about an increase in the cost of services or products as a result of health care or Medicare fraud.  When a person or company attempts to  “rip off” the health care system all patients end up paying the cost.  But what happens if you make a mistake that could be considered fraud?  Or, your health care provider is responsible for information that was incorrectly submitted to Medicare or your insurance company.  Here we look at health care fraud as well as prevention and detection tips.

photo credit: wstera2

What is health care fraud?

To avoid or detect health care fraud, it is important to first understand what actions are considered fraudulent.  As a general rule, fraud has taken place when an insurance company or Medicare is billed for products or services that were never provided.  This may include but is not limited to:

• Charging for medical equipment that has been returned.
• Charging for services or products that you either never received or items that were different from those your received.
• Using the insurance card or Medicare card of an individual other than yourself to receive care, products or services.

Basically if you or your health care provider bill another party for items that were either not received, received and returned, or received but different from items ordered, fraud is being committed.

Detection and prevention tips of Medicare fraud.

As health care costs continue to skyrocket, fraud must be a concern for everyone.  You should be suspicious if any of the following actions take place:

• Your health care provider tells you the service or product is free and they only need your Medicare number for their own records.
• Your health care provider encourages you to go to health clinics or offices in return for payment.
• You are told that the more tests that are conducted, the less expensive they will cost.
• Your health care provider ensures they know a way to get Medicare to cover an expense.
• You are rarely if ever asked to pay a co-payment unless you are receiving prevention services that are Medicare covered.
• Your provider bills Medicare for tests or services you have not received.
• Your health care provider advertises and offers free consultations to individuals with Medicare.

The above mentioned scenarios should raise a red flag that something is not on the up-and-up with your provider and their billing practices.  To prevent health care fraud, you must be diligent in reviewing any statements you receive from Medicare or your insurance company.  Look closely at the charges and confirm if you received all of the tests, services or products for which they have been billed.  If the information is correct, report the error immediately.  While accidents may happen and it is possible for the wrong information to be entered, it doesn’t occur on a regular basis.  If this is the case, it is time to change health care providers to ensure you are not a part of Medicare or other instances of health care fraud.

Morphing into John Travolta in a picture is not exactly what I am talking about, but it is just about that easy to steal someones identity.  In November of this past year, I walked into a Dick’s Sporting Goods store (one of my favorites places by the way) to begin my Christmas shopping.  To my surprise when I went to check out, my credit card was rejected.  I knew this couldn’t be right because I always pay it off every month and it has a limit well beyond anything I ever use it for.  Doesn’t matter, no how many times they ran it through the reader it was rejected.  Fortunately, I had another card with me that I was able to use.  So, except for the slight embarrassment of being rejected, everything was fine.  All I had to do now was find out why my card was rejected.  Not being the patient type, I called the number on the back of my card while walking to my truck in the parking lot. I never thought I would be a victim of identity theft. Never say never.

Identity Theft and Capital One – No Hassles

Capital One promptly answered and, after I was able to verify my identity, they thanked me for calling so promptly, and explained why they rejected the card.  They told me that they had noticed some suspicious Internet charges against my card that didn’t match my normal spending patterns.  They went on to say, that as long as I verified these charges were in fact mine, they would gladly reinstate my card.  As they read me the charges, I found myself extremely happy I was doing business with these people.  They were exactly right.  They read me charge after charge from places I had never heard of.   Everything from a Mercedes Dealer in Palm Springs Florida, to an expensive name brand sporting goods outfit in California, to Dell Computer Sales and Service in Texas.  In total there were more than fifteen different charges in a ten day period that exceeded $3000.00.  All charges were placed over the the Internet, but that doesn’t explain how they got my card numbers.
Check out the business credit cards available on CardOffers.com  

Customer Service at its Best

I explained to the customer service representative how I was still in possession of both my card and my wife’s card and that I was unaware of how this could have happened.  They explained that it was not unusual and that it could have happened any number of ways, none of which was my fault.  They suggested I destroyed my current cards and they would send me a new ones overnight.   They removed the charges that I could immediately determine were not mine and told me to check my next bill closely for any others that may not be mine.  They also took the time to explain that they would be sending me the forms and information to permanently remove, not only these charges, but any other future fraudulent charges that would probably be dwindling in over the next few weeks.  They informed me that in no way would I be held responsible for any fraudulent charges.

Capital One – On Line Account the only way to go!

The account was killed immediately and I received my new cards two days later.  I decided to set up my new account on line with Capital One.  This way I can actually see the charges coming in on a daily basis rather than waiting for my monthly bill in the mail.  It was well worth it since they were once again correct.  More charges continued to dwindle in against my old card number for almost three weeks.  All I had to do was give them a quick call and they immediately removed all the charges that were not mine.  No questions, no hassles.  The following day I was able to verify they were gone by simply logging into my account.  It is also a great way to manage your payments on a real time basis.  No more worries about whether your payment made it through the mail.

Capital One Lives Up to Their Promise

In the end I received a very nice letter telling me the fraud investigation was resolve and closed.   The letter apologized for both the stress and inconvenience it might have caused me.   It also said, that as a part of their $0 fraud liability promise, that I was not responsible for any fraudulent charges.  The letter informed me there was nothing else I needed to do!  I was Done! It said they hoped that I was satisfied with how the case was handled and that they also hoped I could relax and get back to life as usual knowing that Capital One will continue to protect, monitor, and resolve any issues with my account.  That’s their promise!  In my opinion, they kept it!

Summary – Capital One Rocks!

It’s pretty scary when you find out that someone else has found access to your personal finances and accounts without your knowledge.   I was lucky, but some are not so lucky.  Fortunately, I had Capital One take care of my issues with no hassles.  Now, don’t let me try to convince you that it was completely without hassles.  It was a bit of a pain in the rear end to have to continue to check my account and call the fraud department with any new developments.  It was a slight pain to fill out the forms they sent every time more charges were added to the fraud claim.  I even received a call from the Mercedes Dealer in Palm Springs hoping to collect his money.  It was a bit stressful not knowing what would be charged next or whether I should actually use my new cards.  But Capital One took care of it and made it as simple as possible.

I’m sure there are some other good credit card companies out there.  Whether you choose CitiBank, WorldPerks® Visa® Platinum Card, Pulaski Bank Visa® Card, Discover, HSBC Bank or some other company is up to you but, from my personal experience I can’t imagine there is any better than Capital One.  They took care of me!

Ten Things you can do to protect your Identity!

I know of a few others who are still trying to untie the knots created by Identity theft.  Don’t be one of them!   There are lots of services out there – like Reputation.com’s Reputation Defender, for example – that can monitor your credit score for indications of identity theft. The most recent Reputation Defender review was very positive with respect to their ability to prevent damage to both your credit score and your bank savings. If you don’t want to pay a fee to have your identity professionally protected, then there are still plenty of things that you can do on your own to help prevent your identity from being stolen. Following is a list of ten things you can do to help prevent your own identity theft:

1. Be careful who you do business with over the Internet.  Use only those you are absolutely sure are reputable.
2. Be careful who you allow to handle your card.  Many times the card numbers are recorded along with the 3 digit code by the person handling your card.
3. Never give out social security numbers, credit card numbers on any financial information over the phone unless you know exactly who you are speaking with.
4. Never respond to any offers over the Internet regarding prizes you may have won, or money you may be entitled to, no matter how good it sounds or how interesting it may seem.
5. Never throw anything in the trash that might contain financially sensitive information.  Shred it first!
6. Check your credit rating often.  Once a year it is free from all three majors.  Place fraud alerts on your credit reports.
7. Deal only with reputable Credit card companies.  I personally recommend Capital One!
8. Opt-out of unsolicited credit card offers and junk mail.
9. Understand your rights and your limited responsibility.
10. Consider protecting yourself with a Identity Theft Protection.  While they offer nothing you can’t actually do yourself, they do provide the convenience and piece of mine that it will get handled.  The two largest are LifeLock® and Debix, but I also recommend checking them as just as thoroughly as any other financial institution to make sure they really offer what you actually need.

Identity Theft … It can happen to you!  It happened to me!  Papa B.