Nicole Kinsey White asked:




By now, every adult should know that identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. It has become an epidemic, leaving everyone at risk, including children, adults, the elderly, those with good credit, bad credit, or no credit. And, to make matters worse, most people do not know if their identity has been stolen.

The biggest misconception is that identity theft only affects or involves your credit. If you, too, believe that identity theft only affects or involves your credit, then you might want to keep reading.

In addition to credit related identity theft, there are at least four other categories of identity theft that will not necessarily affect your credit, but can ruin your life. The following are real life stories.

1. Character identity theft. Someone impersonates you and commits a crime in your name resulting in warrants issued in your name, arrests made, and time spent in jail.

Donna has been impersonated by her sister for many years. Unfortunately for Donna, her sister has an extensive criminal record. In order to clear her name, Donna has had to hire an attorney. She has been told that once your name is associated with a crime, it can never come off.

Someone with a criminal record stole Harry’s wallet. Unbeknownst to Harry, the thief then committed several crimes in Harry’s name. Unfortunately, this criminal activity was entered into the database of a background check company that provides data to potential employers. Harry lost his job and has been unable to find work because of the false information.

Three years ago, Jane’s purse was stolen by someone she knew. The identity thief bought a car with Jane’s ID and committed other crimes in Jane’s name (writing bad checks and burglary). No one in law enforcement believes Jane when she says she is not the criminal, not even the District Attorney who is charging her with the crimes.

John, a man from San Diego, traveled to Mexico to visit his relatives. On his way back home, he was stopped and told that there was an arrest warrant issued in his name. Apparently, someone had been committing crimes in his name and using his Social Security number. John was arrested and taken to San Francisco where he spent 10 days in jail. After finally convincing a police office that he was not the criminal, John was released and left stranded without any money.

2. Social Security Number (SSN) identity theft. Someone steals your SSN and obtains employment in your name. The thief’s employer reports wages earned to the IRS under your SSN leaving you to pay income taxes on these earnings. Further, an identity thief’s use of your SSN can cause you to lose life sustaining benefits.

Paul received a letter from the IRS stating that he had earned additional income in 2003. Paul never earned this additional income. An identity thief used Paul’s SSN and earned wages in Paul’s name. Now Paul’s credit is ruined, and the IRS wants to be paid.

Alex lost his wallet, and he never bothered to report it to the police. In 2005, he filed his tax return and expected a refund. Instead, he received nothing. The IRS withheld his refund check to pay off back taxes he owed from 2002. Apparently in 2002, someone had used Alex’s SSN to earn wages in Alex’s name. This “unreported income” left Alex with a $9000 tax bill.

Someone has been using Mary’s SSN to earn wages. Mary, who had been receiving AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) benefits, lost her benefits because income records show her as having a salary.

Jack applied for unemployment benefits, but he was denied because records showed that he was actually working. Apparently, someone in another city had been using his SSN to earn wages in his name. Jack was told that he had to prove that his identity had been stolen.

3. Medical identity theft. Someone steals your identity and either obtains medical insurance in your name or uses your current medical insurance policy to obtain treatment or prescriptions. You can be denied health coverage or lose your current health coverage because of false information placed in your medical record.

An identity thief received treatment for an injury to his hand using a stolen identity. Now, the identity theft victim has been receiving letters demanding payment for drugs and services rendered to the thief.

4. Driver’s license identity theft. Someone commits traffic related offenses in your name. When the identity thief fails to appear in court, warrants are issued in your name.

In 2003, Alex’s driver’s license was revoked because he had another driver’s license in another state revoked due to criminal charges. In addition, Alex had warrants out for his arrest in the other state. After about a year of working to clear his name, Alex’s driver’s license was reinstated.

An identity thief with a poor driving record obtained a copy of Sara’s driver’s license. Now, because of the identity thief’s poor driving record, Sara’s license has been suspended, and she is in danger of losing her auto insurance.

5. Credit identity theft. Someone uses your information to obtain loans, goods, or services and does not pay the bills. The accumulating unpaid bills end up going to collection, which can affect your credit.

For over six years, Kate has been a victim of identity theft. Even a fraud alert placed on her credit report has not stopped the identity thief. As a result, Kate can not purchase a home because of bad credit.

An identity thief wrote bad checks and opened several credit card accounts in Erica’s name. Consequently, Erica’s application to open her own bank account was denied. Erica has had to hire an attorney to clear her name. This has cost her over $4,500.

So, you can see that once an identity thief has your identity, he/she can do just about anything including ruining your life. Don’t think you are immune. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there have been at least 111 disclosed incidents of data breaches since January 2005 that could potentially expose 53 million individuals to identity theft. This number is steadily increasing. Further, according to the FTC, over 27,000 people per day have their identities stolen in America.

Your information is not safe. As long as others (employers, credit card companies, medical facilities, etc.) have your private information, you are always at risk for identity theft. All it takes is for an employer to lose your information or give it away or one person/employee to steal the information. A cellular phone company experienced just that when employees used customer data to create fraudulent accounts. The bogus accounts were used by the thieves and their friends to ring up thousands of dollars in calls.

When it comes to protecting your identity, being proactive is the only practical way to go to avoid the frustration, time, and expense of restoring your identity and name. Some things you can do to prevent identity theft include not giving out your personal information, shredding unwanted mail, and not carrying your SSN card with you. Also, continuous credit monitoring is an easy, effective and often inexpensive way of keeping an eye on your credit at all times to help prevent credit related identity theft.

Yolanda

Matthew Stanton asked:




Theft, in itself, is a pretty devastating crime already especially if it concerns something of great value to you, but identity theft tops it all. Imagine someone you do not know pretending to be you. If that is not bad enough, imagine that this someone is using your personal records to continue, conceal and venture on his illegal deeds. Identity theft is a crime of a vastly devastating nature and anyone can be a victim. It is a cause of great distress that crime as serious in its implications as this is stills a growing crime today. Many have been victimized by this kind of crime already, and it is a vast understatement to say that these people have gone through a major inconvenience.

To know that your identity can be stolen from you at the snap of your fingers is disheartening. Indeed, id theft can happen to anyone at anytime and anywhere. You can be victimized online, while standing in the streets, while in the mall, any situation can be a situation for identity thieves to strike. One careless move on how you handle your personal documents can be a cause for your identity to be stolen.

Id theft is an unfortunate reality nowadays that we must accept and face. If you think there is no way that you can be victimized, then you better think again. Many a person has suffered through the burden of id theft because of ignorance and lack of information on this crime and how it can happen.

How to identity thieves take hold of my personal documents?
The things that can be stolen from you are only those documents that are concrete proof of your identity and existence. Of course, as all significant institutions require that we have documents to prove our identity, concrete proofs of identity are pretty much abundant with every person. Have you thrown any personal documents in your trash lately without shredding them? This can be pretty simple access for criminals to get hold of information pertaining to you. The individuals key to making sure that he is not victimized by id theft is to make sure that all personal documents are in place, that no document could just slip out unnoticed. Another way by which criminals can fish out personal information from you is through bogus ads offering jobs.

In this way, criminals ask you to provide personal information for the supposed job application. Thus, always be wary of advertisements for jobs and other stuff that seems to come from an unknown company. Always verify that the company you are applying for is legitimate before you actually apply because this might precipitate in the stealing of your identity. Be also cautious of throwing away any electronic storage equipment you have, like your computer. Criminals can obtain personal information from these. Thus, make sure that you have wiped out the contents of the memory before you throw out your computer. Your personal data can also be obtained through eavesdropping on public transactions. Thus, in transactions like ATM withdrawals and such, make sure that you conceal it carefully from anyone who might try to eavesdrop on it.

The nature of the crime of identity theft is truly one that should elicit careful handling of anything that might result to the perpetration of the crime.

Gloria

Keith Londrie asked:




Identity theft is often confused with other crimes that lead to identity theft. As an example, a thief caught stealing credit card numbers is not necessarily committing identity theft. He is committing a financial crime. Identity theft happens when a criminal steals your personal information for the express purpose of pretending to be you.

Why would anyone want to be you? If you’re anything like me, even the thought that someone would want to take over your life might make you smile and shake your head. Go ahead, I would tell them. It’s all yours. Except I do not really mean it.

Even if you did, what an identity thief wants from you is not really your life; it’s just everything that tells others that your life belongs to you. Your Social Security number is one good example. A person who can’t get a Social Security number will sometimes steal one that belongs to someone else, so they can have the benefits of having a Social Security number.

Another reason that identities are stolen is to gain access to your financial accounts. In fact, this is one of the most common reasons that a criminal is trying to become you. Your power lies in your good name, and if a thief can gain control of your good name, then they also control that power.
The power that I mean is purchasing power. The ability to own a home, hold a job, and apply for credit. These are what identity thieves are after.

Identity thieves are not the pasty-faced, Pop-Tart eating nerds that you might picture them to be. Next time you go out to the grocery store, look around at the people who are also there. Any one of them could be an identity thief. Young, old, rich, poor, any nationality-there are no restraints that say one type of person is more likely to be an identity thief than another.

It doesn’t matter that the doctor you saw last week had the best nurses in the county. One of those nurses could be an identity thief who steals personal information from patient records and then sells that information to another criminal, who then resells it to illegal aliens. Even a single mom of three that just moved in across the street could be an identity thief.

No group of people is more or less likely to be an identity thief. Criminals steal identities for profit, and anyone in the right place with access to the right information might find the lure of extra cash too much to turn down.

Sylvia

J. M. Smith asked:




In the state of Michigan, teachers and employees of schools are finding themselves victims of ID theft and ID inaccuracies. Under new state laws they may find themselves unemployed. First, here are what the new laws require.

1. Fingerprinting and background checks for all school employees and anyone contracted to work regularly and continuously in a school.

2. A ban on anyone convicted of any of the offenses included in the Sex Offender Registration Act working in schools or day care centers.

3. Criminal checks for those applying for or renewing a certificate of registration to operate a family day care home or group day care home, a child care center or a day care center.

4. Criminal checks on anyone older than 18 residing in the home of a family day care home or group day care home when an application is filled to operate the center.

5. A ban on sex offenders working or loitering within 1,000 feet of school property.

6. Notification from school employees charged with certain crimes within three working days.

The Michigan State Police ran the background checks on about 200,000 school employees, using identifiers such as name, date of birth, Social numbers, race and sex. When all was said and done they found more than 4,600 criminal offenses and of those 2,200 were felonies. Anyone with a sexual offense must be immediately fired.

The classic case of criminal identity theft is definitely what has happened here. An ID theft criminal uses a fake social number which has matched a teachers or employees number.

So once again, a system developed to get rid of the offenders which seems good at first, as it should be, but because of ID theft criminals, the system can now be used against the innocent. The fight here you might think, would be to help those wrongly accused, not so. The fight is between the MEA (Michigan Education Association) to barr the Department of Education from publicly releasing the list. Others want legislation forcing the Department to release the names. I’m sure you could pull these identifiers all across the nation and most probably you’ll end up with the same mess.

Now, not all victims were victims to just criminal identity theft, but the state had inaccuracies. One victim was listed as having a drug possession background and another with a welfare fraud felony conviction. Both of these were later found to be totally inaccurate but I think we can see how easy we are to either ID theft or human error which could lead to identity nightmares. What side would you be on if this happened in your state or school?

As I have mentioned in a previous article “A Complete Wall of Protection” do you think access to an attorney might be needed here? I have mentioned that monitoring is good and it could have helped some victims here but you can’t stop there. I have mentioned that resolution is the best way to restore your good name. Do you think these teachers and employees might need to take some time to restore their good name and how long? A good restoration service will have monitored their credit and let’s say that didn’t catch the thief but now the restoration service will begin the process for them and not just walk them through the process. Thirdly, access to an attorney is definitely needed for counsel here and wouldn’t that be nice to receive that consultation for less than a cup of coffee a day or $200 an hour?

From all the identity theft articles you’ll find a common theme, it damages lives. Never think it can’t happen to you. ID theft by nature is a threat and because it’s a threat all too often folks make the mistake and think the experts are trying scare tactics to get them to purchase products. We have health insurance, life insurance, auto insurance, home insurance and other insurances not only to replace what was lost but each one of those insurances could be financially devastating to a family. The thing is, ID theft is still fairly new and we haven’t grasped the devastation it can have on us.

I’m not sold on identity theft insurance and you can research previous articles on why, but it is still better than nothing. Do your research diligently before making your decision to purchase protection. Keep it simple and make sure it covers all three areas of monitoring, restoration and access to counsel.

Karl

J. M. Smith asked:




Generally the problem with small business owners and risk management, specifically in the area of ID Theft is that the small business owner thinks small. They feel because they have a small business certain laws only apply to the larger business. As a small business owner you should be concerned about some of these facts. Over 150 million data files have been breached from organizations with many of those being small businesses.

CIO Magazine, The Coming Pandemic, by Michael Freidenberg, May 15 2006 says “If you experience a security breach, 20 percent of your affected customer base will no longer do business with you, 40 percent will consider ending the relationship and 5 percent will be hiring lawyers”. That’s a potential 65 percent business loss with possible class action lawsuits. Are you getting concerned yet? Shouldn’t it be your responsibility to protect your clients personal information. They’ve entrusted you with it and now it should be your obligation to protect it. Even if you don’t feel like it is, the Federal Government is making sure you do.

It doesn’t matter the type of business you own, the information you collect, names, addresses, social security numbers, credit card numbers or other account numbers about students, employees, business partners, contractors, or patients. Their information lost by you and into the wrong hands can put everyone at ID theft fraud. Certainly the type of compromised information will affect the type of potential damage. A great start to learning more about what you can do in beginning a protection plan is to start with the FTC’s guide for your business.

Here are three simple things to start with.

1. Take Stock. Know what personal information you have in your files and on your computers. Inventory all computers, laptops, flash drives, disks, home computers and all other equipment to find out where your company stores sensitive data.

2. Lock it. Store paper documents or files as well as CD’s, floppy disks, zip drives, tapes and backups containing personally identifiable information in a locked room or in a locked file cabinet. Limit access to employees with a legitimate business need.

3. Pitch it. Properly dispose of what you no longer need. Implement information disposal practices that are reasonable and appropriate to prevent unauthorized access to – or use of- personally identifying information. Reasonable measures for your operation are based on the sensitivity of the information, the costs and benefits of different disposal methods and changes in technology.

These three simple steps can get you on a great start. There’s definitely a whole lot more you need to do but understanding some simple steps can get you on the right path to your businesses awareness of this international crime. Stop thinking like a small business owner, take responsibility and when your clients and employees see you care about their personal information your business will take on the dynamics of big business.

Jeff

J. M. Smith asked:




New Federal and State Laws enacted for privacy protection of non-public information have been in effect for the last couple of years. Unfortunately the small business owner is totally unaware of these new laws which can have a dramatic impact on the way they do business. And it’s not just the small business owner but major corporations. Both have been exposed to security breaches as well as the Federal Government, so no one is immune to this epidemic. Currently 38 states have enacted laws regarding requirements for the notification of victims in the event of a loss or breach of information from a business.

Case example, my wife’s workout gym (I won’t mention the business) someone breaks into the establishment and steals only the computer. Unfortunately, it contains the businesses customer data base, financial information etc. According to the new Michigan ID Theft Protection Act the owner needs to let every single customer know there has been a breach. What does the owner say, ” I don’t think they we’re stealing the computer for ID Theft but to sell the computer.” Big mistake! especially with this new law that says $250.00 fine for every customer up to a max of $750,000 dollars. Wow! Could that crush everything she has worked so hard for in building her business? One call could start the process and a nightmare for her especially knowing what I know. I won’t do this but should I have an obligation to the other customers to inform them what type of nightmare this could have on them if that information is used against them? Someone could be financially devastated.

I don’t intimidate or scare people into doing business with me but remember my wife’s or should I say our financial information is also on that data base. My wife is a customer and is now a potential victim. In fact because there has been a breach she is a victim of ID Theft. ID Theft is where a criminal steals information with the intent to commit ID fraud. ID fraud is where the criminal uses that information. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. Whether you have one employee or one thousand you need to be aware of the new laws and have some type of security breach system in place. Doing so could dramatically make your case if a class action lawsuit were to take place in the event of a security breach in your business.

Let’s face it, ID Theft is the number one growing crime in America today and treating customer information today the way we did in the past can have a severe impact on your business if a security breach were to occur. In fact customers will look for the companies they feel safe with in disclosing their valuable information. I believe we will see in the near future posted somewhere on a businesses establishment some type of ID Theft compliant label letting clients know they are protecting that customers information. How do customers feel when they know a business is part of the Better Business Bureau or the product they purchased has a Good Housekeeping label behind it? Could this be the label to give you the slight edge needed over your competition? Believe me it is already happening now.

Betsy Broder assistant director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection says ” We’re not looking for a perfect system, but we need to see that you’ve taken reasonable steps to protect your customers’ information.” She says she understands that most small businesses cannot be expected to hire a full-time privacy specialist, but that all businesses must be able to show they have a security plan in place.

Here are a few federal statutes that expose businesses to civil and criminal liability. FACTA, HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GAB) and Social Security Number Privacy Act. So whether you are a small business owner or large corporation the FTC isn’t going to take ignorance as an excuse if your business has a security breach.

Darlene

Madison Conley asked:




Stealing another person’s identification information with nefarious intentions is a crime. Usually, offenders commit this crime to get a benefit, or a service or credit account. Because of the huge losses that may be incurred due to such identity thefts, people and businesses all over the world are forced to take ID theft protection measures. Since there are different methods available, you have to employ the most appropriate one that suits your needs.

You should decide the risks that have to be covered by the method employed. For instance, if you do your business through the Internet and your computer, you must protect your personal data and system from being accessed by such hackers or criminals. If your personal information is used for obtaining a loan or similar purposes, you can take ID theft insurance that offers protection.

The foremost thing you should adopt for ID theft protection is to use highly secure websites. You should remember the fact that all websites are not protected and encrypted. But the websites that have such a protection are very particular about letting their users know about this protection.

As soon as you submit your personal and financial information to these sites, they make it a point to encrypt such details immediately. This protects your information from being stolen by evil-minded hackers and intruders. But, if you provide your personal and financial details to a site that is not protected like this, you provide a scope for such hackers to infringe upon your details.

Secondly, you must keep the security of your computer up to date for having foolproof ID theft protection. Many viruses and spyware programs are there. Malware may steal your personal information and pass them on to mischievous elements.

These evil minded hackers indulge in such activities for fulfilling their avaricious ends. They may open new accounts using your credit. They may use utilities at your cost or may even try to have bank accounts in your name. They may indulge in several other criminal activities. You should have suitable ID theft protection software so that all your information is encoded on your computer and these hackers can not access them.

You should realize the utmost importance of identity theft protection and hence you must protect your ID as well as your computer. Your personal information is something precious and hackers may spoil your reputation by misusing it.

Jeffrey

Matthew Stanton asked:




We are living in the information age today but one of the drawbacks of easily accessible data is that your personal information may be just lying out there waiting to be snatched by identity thieves. Identity theft has grown to be pervasive and is now one of the dominant white collar crimes today.

The Federal Trade Commission reports that identity theft is the largest consumer complaint and the fastest growing crime in America. In 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that identity theft affected 9.91 million Americans. In addition, there are probably many more cases that went unreported. Identity theft has accounted for $52,600,000,000 in losses in 2007. Most identity theft victims never know their identity has been stolen until they get phone calls and letters from collections agencies or even the IRS telling them they owe money.

ID theft victims usually experience that fixing the problem can be a nightmare. On average, victims spend up to 600 hours and thousand of dollars in expenses just to prove they are innocent. Worse, contrary to judicial practice, most creditors consider the ID theft victim guilty until they prove otherwise.

The problem is that many people do not take ID theft seriously and do not take the necessary ID theft protective measures. There are many precautionary measures you must do in order to protect yourself from ID theft. The first thing you should do is to check your credit reports at least once a year from all three credit bureaus in order to make sure you do not have accounts you do not know about. The major credit reporting agencies include Equifax, Experian Information Solutions and TransUnion.

In addition, you should shred or burn papers with credit card or bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, etc. These documents may fall to unscrupulous individuals and the personal information might be used to commit ID theft. You should also avoid putting your Social Security number on anything, unless it is legally required. Some checks have the issuers Social Security number on them and some drivers license routinely use Social Security number. This is a big mistake. You should check with the local DMV and bank to see if they offer another option.

In todays information age, physically stealing mail and papers is not the only way to get information.One of the disturbing trends that identity thieves use is phishing. This is a criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive financial and personal information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing uses spam, email or pop-up messages to deceive Internet users into disclosing credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security numbers, passwords, and other sensitive information. These e-mails appear to come from a legitimate company, usually a financial institution or credit card issuer, urging you to immediately reply with personal information so your account is not deactivated.

Vigilance is the key to ID theft protection. Always file a police report promptly after discovering ID theft as you will need it in disputing fraudulent charges.

Lillian

Tina L Douglas asked:




Gone were the days when only tangible properties get stolen. With the fast-paced technology, practically anything can be taken away from anyone – dead or alive. Yes, the dead is not exemption.

So, you’re identity has been tampered. So, your credit standing is now a mess. So, what do you do next? Where do you ask for help? Recovering from identity theft is comparable to regaining strength after a series of chemotherapy. The financial as well as emotional impact could be great. The process involves information gathering, reporting, follow through, resolution and continual monitoring.

1. Information Gathering – Collate all information pertinent to what was stolen from you. Keep in mind that everything should be properly documented, even your simplest conversation with anybody – the time of call, who you spoke with, what was discussed and agreed upon. Get a record of all the fraudulent financial information. Freeze the credit or bank account involved. Obtain a copy of your credit report. Get a hold of a receiving copy of anything that you send out to anyone, even the report you provide the local police department.

2. Reporting – You need to contact quite a number of institutions to assist you with the unfortunate event. Proper authorities include, but are not limited to, the Federal Trade Commission and the local police department, your bank or credit company’s fraud investigators, your lawyer, and more importantly, you support group. You will need a lot of emotional strength as you go through a very lengthy process of reclaiming your own identity.

3. Follow Through – Ensure that you have spoken to the right people. More often than not, the issue of identity theft gets worse when one settles with reporting the concern to front-liner support such as customer service representatives. These individuals may log your concern but they are not experts on how to treat the complexity of your case. Whenever possible, ask for the company’s fraud expert.

4. Resolution and Continual Monitoring
Be in constant communication with your lawyer. You hired him not only to help you regain what was lost, but also to defend you. When identity is stolen, it’s a big issue of trust. So take note to hire the lawyer whom you personally know and would at least attest to your real personality.

Bear in mind that everything should not stop the moment you have regained your identity and cleaned up all the mess. It is a must that you protect yourself by doing preventive measures such as subscribing to credit monitoring services. These services monitor the activities of your accounts and would alert you the moment any changes happen. You can then validate them as they happen instead of waiting for something big to explode in your face. Prevention best serves as your shield.

Roberta

Matt J. Morris asked:




Identity theft is the number one crime in America. Medical identity theft, where individuals receive medical care using stolen false identities, is widely considered to be the fastest growing type of this crime. An increasing number of people are falling victim to this crime and are having their lives turned upside down, while being forced to spend hundreds of hours to clear their good name. The cost to business has most recently been estimated at nearly $50 billion dollars per year.

In response to this growing problem the Federal Trade Commission is now requiring an ID Theft Red Flag Program be in place for any medical practice that does not collect complete payment at the time it provides services to its patients. Any practice that is billing insurance on behalf of its patients, where the patient is ultimately responsible for the payment, is now being considered a “creditor” by the FTC, and falls under these requirements. The deadline for laving a program in place has been moved back to August 1, 2009, as the FTC found many industries still unaware of their obligations under this rule. It is at that point that the FTC will begin to enforce civil and monetary penalties per infraction.

Although the American Medical Association (AMA) and other medical associations have argued that they should not fall under this rule, the FTC recently responded with a nine page letter making it clear they would not be granting an exemption to these requirements for health care providers.

The purpose of these requirements is to minimize the risk to individuals that have had their information stolen for the purpose of identity theft. While having to comply with a new law may at first seem frustrating, practices will be reducing their liability and minimizing the expense of providing services where payment would otherwise go uncollected. Medical identity theft can often go unnoticed, mixed in with a practices’ bad debt from services that are unable to be collected when the actual patient is unknown. Third party payors can also demand a refund from physicians if identity theft is discovered after the payment has been applied. Ultimately, the financial cost of this growing problem is most often born by the practice, and good policies and staff awareness can reduce that cost.

The “Red Flag Rules” requires practices to develop an identity theft program that contains written “reasonable policies and procedures” to:

Identify relevant patterns, practices, and specific forms activity that are “red flags,” Detect these patterns, or “red flags”; Respond to those detected to prevent and mitigate identity theft; and Ensure the program is updated periodically to reflect changes in risks. In administering such a program, a practice would need to: Illustrate approval of the program from its board or board committee; Appoint a designee(s) as a red flag officer; Train staff on awareness, red flags, and appropriate responses; Exercise oversight of service provider arrangements.

While some health care practices have begun to check identification prior to providing services this will now be a necessary step for all providers that have patients covered under this rule. The identity theft red flags that need to be identified in a policy fall under these categories: Suspicious documents; Suspicious identifying information; Unusual or suspicious activity related to patient; and/or Notices from patients, victims of identity theft, insurance investigators, law enforcement, about possible identity theft.

Training of staff is a very important element to this program as not only new procedures will need to be adopted, but also a new awareness among staff needs to be created to adequately follow policies. Most employees within the health care industry know very little about this problem and will find it difficult to identify the red flags, follow proper reporting requirements, and recognize the appropriate responses if their thinking and behavior has not been impacted by this training.

Proper training should also impact behavior related to how information is handled, and go a long way towards data theft and breaches that are increasingly common. This is especially true when 61% of current data breaches are a result of administrative error.

According to Betsy Broder, the Assistant Director, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection at the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC will be looking for “reasonable efforts” at this initial point of enforcement. According to Broder, “What we’re looking for is good faith efforts on their part to develop programs.”

The FTC has stated they do not believe the requirements will impose significant burdens for most providers. Given the risk-based nature of the rule’s requirements, programs can be flexible and tailored to the degree of risk faced by a particular provider. While it is essential that all the components above are included, they may be more or less extensive based upon the risk factors involved.

Gladys