All of us seem to have a smart phone these days. We have pictures, documents, mobile wallets and if it goes south, hacked, lost…your life will seem to be over. So start thinking about the active precautions you need to take..NOW!

1. Install a VPN  – virtual private network – there are many choices out there along with discounts
2. Install an ad blocker. Some VPN’s  do that automatically
3. Activate your screen lock
4. Always check permissions with addition of new app’s
5. Activate remote device locator
6. Activate auto back-up
7. Activate 2-factor authentication
8. Turn on encryption
9. Install antivirus
10. Make sure to use different passwords for different accounts (password manager)

Security today has to be first and foremost in your mind. Often you are sing your own device at work. What will happen if your or your company information is compromised. Who is to be blamed? Can it affect your job? If a breach occurs because of your device what are the consequences. Mobile technology has made our lives more interesting, often easier, but also a challenge in keep information safe and secure.

For further information and other updates contact Linda at 310-831-4400 or watch for her regular Twitter updates!

Identity theft cases are growing at a staggering rate in the United States. While a lot more consumers are becoming aware of the risks and enlisting help via identity protection, most ignore the importance of having an ID theft recovery plan as well. The cost to recover your identity averages over $3,000 and could take as many as 600 hours. The entire process is tedious, time-consuming, frustrating, and could easily bankrupt you if you already have a dire financial situation.

But recovering from identity theft doesn’t have to be so devastating. In conjunction with identity protection, identity theft recovery services help keep your life in order when you become a victim of identity theft.

How ID Theft Recovery Services Can Help

Identity theft recovery companies are experts at handling the loss of your information. They track down the point of origin to help you discover what credit accounts are fraudulent. Then they go to work helping you restore your credit profile. They handle your recovery from multiple types of identity theft, including:

• Medical identity theft
• Data breaches
• Bank and/or credit card identity theft
• Government identity theft (e.g., Social Security fraud, Medicare fraud, etc.)
• Employment identity theft
• Phone and/or utilities identity theft
• Every other type of identity theft you can imagine—and there are many!

Steps An ID Theft Recovery Service Takes

Identity recovery requires experts, such as law enforcement professionals, who understand the complicated process of ID theft recovery. While the steps they take depend on the extent of your identity theft case, some services include:

• An expert who resolves all inaccurate information that appears on your credit report and/or medical records due to fraudulent activity.
• A professional who contacts financial institutions and other credit providers, and then closes down those accounts to ensure no further charges occur.
• Helping you file a police report as well as a report with other government agencies to thoroughly document the fraud.
• Cleaning up any fraudulent tax returns that may have been filed on your behalf, and working closely with the IRS as well as your state tax commission to correct those errors.

While identity protection is your first line of defense against ID theft, when identity theft does happen, having a respected ID theft recovery plan is place is critical. ID360 provides identity theft recovery services that give you peace of mind. From negotiating with creditors, obtaining your credit reports, dealing with your bank, filing FTC reports, and  assisting with correcting your medical records, the company ensures that you are able to return to the good credit you had before the identity theft occurred.

Get more identity theft protection and recovery advice from the experts at The Identity Advocate by visiting www.TheIdentityAdvocate.com or calling 310.831.4400.

You trust in your physician to take care of you. You trust them to prescribe medications, diagnose symptoms when you’re sick, and help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. But is your physician doing something else—something nefarious—that you don’t know about? He or she could be committing healthcare fraud—at your expense!

Healthcare fraud and abuse is on the rise in the United States. From physicians billing for services you don’t receive to performing unnecessary procedures, healthcare fraud and abuse takes a serious toll on your health and insurance. While most physicians do it to pad their revenue, these false claims, medical orders, and prescriptions put your life at risk.

Billing Schemes

Physician billing schemes are one of the most common types of healthcare fraud and abuse. He or she will bill your health insurance for services that were never provided and collect reimbursements for those services. This can occur in many ways, from a chiropractor billing your insurance for five visits when you only visited twice, to a physician charging you for expensive medications (like those used to treat kidney disease, cancer, or HIV) that you don’t need or didn’t receive.

Physicians have also been known to offer in-house CT machines and bill your insurance for scans that were never scheduled, let alone performed. Or a physician may perform a procedure to add a stent you don’t really need just to be able to bill your insurance and collect a claim. All of these extra charges and expensive services can impact both your insurance premiums and your health. The list of offenses goes on and on.

Upcoding For Higher Claim Amounts

Upcoding is another common form of healthcare fraud and abuse. This is a process where the physician charges for a higher service than what was actually performed. For example, you visit your physician for a routine office visit, which has its own code and reimbursement amount. However, your physician charges your insurance for an extended office visit, which costs more. According to recent statistics, making a simple code change like this could increase a physician’s revenue by $70,000. While his or income is increasing, yours is declining as you watch your insurance premiums steadily rise.

How to Fight Healthcare Fraud and Abuse

As frightening as all of this is, you can take steps to protect yourself:

• Review your billing statements and explanation of benefits (EOB) from your insurance provider. Verify that the charges made by your physician coincide with services, medications, and equipment you actually received. If you are confused, or feel you did not receive services, call the physician immediately!
• Annually request all treatment paid for by your insurance carrier. Compare them to your EOBs. If you find discrepancies, notify your carrier immediately.
• Request receipts when you pay at your physician’s office, as well as a receipt of all services performed.
• If you choose to pay cash for a service, watch for an EOB that the provider also charged your insurance provider.

Despite all you do to fight back against healthcare fraud and abuse, 10 to 30 percent of all medical patients fall victim. Get extra protection by hiring a fraud and abuse expert that specializes in safeguarding you from the consequences of these types of physician practices. Whatever you do, be proactive to prevent it from happening to you.

Make the Right Move

Consider signing up for an identity theft protection plan with a company like ID360, the only one managed by law enforcement that also restores your identity back to pre-theft status after it’s stolen. You can also discover helpful resources over at The Identity Advocate, and contact an experienced investigator to learn more about resolving healthcare fraud and identity theft. Fight back!

Related Articles:

• Is Your Medical Device Putting You At Risk For Identity Theft?
• The Right Prescription to Prevent Medical Identity Theft
• Are You At Risk For ObamaCare Identity Theft Scams?

Do you know how easy it is to infiltrate, expose, and compromise any type of health care agency? Identity theft can easily happen right under your nose, so the best defense is a good offense. Know your rights and know how you can protect your business by performing an employee criminal background check for prospective employees during the hiring process. Unfortunately, as crime statistics for identity theft continue to soar, an employee criminal background check is more important than ever before for corporations and physician’s offices of any size.

Any employee can be a potential thief, so an employee criminal background check should be conducted on every new hire, whether it is a full time in home caregiver or a temporary /transitional caregiver. As the aging baby boomers discover it is better to have in-home care, and now economy continues to recover, more agencies are hiring more employees, it’s important to know the “do’s and don’ts” of an employee criminal background check. An employee criminal background check ensures that you are protected from identity theft predators or opportunistic criminals masquerading as enthusiastic job applicants. There are many things to consider when performing an employee criminal background check, including the components, laws, and processes necessary to ensure a new employee can be trusted with sensitive information.

What’s Included in an Employee Criminal Background Check?

Every employee background check also includes a thorough employee criminal background check. Some of the information is public and some is private, but all of the information is important in assessing a job applicant. Although the type of information checked varies from state to state and county to county, an employee criminal background check can include:

• Credit, driving, criminal, education, medical, drug test, court, military, and bankruptcy records
• Social Security Number
• Vehicle registration
• Property ownership
• Past employment
• Professional and personal references

All of this information is invaluable, but one aspect that is often overlooked is the credit report. A poor credit rating makes the average applicant a higher risk for identity theft. Additionally, research shows that one in four disputes over information on an employee criminal background check is connected to identity theft issues, so take every precaution to thoroughly evaluate every prospective employee’s credit and criminal records.

Are There Employee Criminal Background Check Laws?

Yes! They vary by state, but the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) set national standards for performing an employee criminal background check. The law only applies to an employee criminal background check conducted by a consumer reporting agency, which is a firm that administers the employee criminal background check on your behalf. If you decide to perform an employee criminal background check in-house, make sure you follow your state’s background check laws carefully. Remember: Employees have rights, too!

According to the FCRA, some information cannot be reported in an employee criminal background check:

• Accounts in collection longer than seven years
• Paid tax liens beyond seven years
• Bankruptcies after ten years
• Arrest records, civil suits, and civil judgments after seven years

Employee Criminal Background Check: An Overview

Follow this employee criminal background check “cheat sheet” to safeguard your company from identity thieves and potential criminals in the workplace:

• Who: Every employee!
• What: A comprehensive employee criminal background check that abides by all applicable laws
• When: Before an employee is hired
• Why: To protect your business and your employees!
• How: Either in-house or by a consumer reporting agency

If you have questions or need assistance performing an employee criminal background check, don’t hesitate to the contact the experts! It can save your business from disaster. Contact Linda Vincent at 310-831-4400 or connect with her at linda@theidentityadvocate.com

Why is it that everyone else uses our tax dollars for their benefits! Watch this and see if you don’t want to stop this!

http://videos2view.net/tax-fraud.htm

Department of Justice

A Southern California man who ran a durable medical equipment (DME) supply company has been found guilty by a federal jury in Los Angeles for his role in a $1.5 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr. of the Central District of California, Assistant Director in Charge Bill Lewis of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Glenn R. Ferry of the Los Angeles Region of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.

Vahe Tahmasian, 36, of Glendale, Calif., was found guilty on March 21, 2014, in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, six counts of health care fraud and six counts of aggravated identity theft.   Sentencing is set for June 9, 2014.

The evidence introduced at trial showed that between April 2009 and February 2011, Tahmasian operated a Medicare fraud scheme at Orthomed Appliance Inc. (Orthomed), a DME supply company in West Hollywood, Calif.   Tahmasian and his co-conspirator, Eric Mkhitarian, purchased Orthomed from the previous owners and put the company in the name of a straw owner.   The defendant and his co-conspirator then stole the personal identifying information of Medicare beneficiaries and doctors in the company’s patient files and used that information to submit a large volume of fraudulent claims to Medicare.   The evidence showed that during a three-month period in late 2010, Tahmasian submitted more than $1.2 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare for services that were never prescribed by a physician and never provided to the Medicare beneficiaries.   Tahmasian and his co-conspirator then took out more than $622,000 in cash from the company over a six-week period in early 2011.   The evidence at trial showed that Tahmasian used a fake California driver’s license during the course of the fraudulent scheme.   Tahmasian submitted a total of $1,584,640 in claims to Medicare and received approximately $994,036 on those claims.

Mkhitarian, Tahmasian’s alleged co-conspirator, remains a fugitive.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Los Angeles Region of HHS-OIG and brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Benton Curtis and Trial Attorney Alexander Porter of the Fraud Section.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged more than 1,700 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $5.5 billion.   In addition, HHS’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, is taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov .

Your smartphone does double-duty as a wallet and personal computer, holding everything from family photos to sensitive office data. Digital pickpockets and old school thieves can take advantage of this and steal everything in one fell swoop. However, with the right tools, you can keep all of your smartphone data safe and secure.

NQ Mobile Vault

Whether you are protecting your private data from a thief or a nosy partner, NQ Mobile Vault is an important part of your privacy efforts. Priced around $20 per year, this service for iPhones and Androids uses bank-level encryption methods to keep sensitive texts, contacts, call logs, and photos in a hidden vault. With this tool, you can have a secure chat away from Facebook, or you can set a four-digit code to protect any apps that need an extra layer of protection from prying eyes.

Spread the Risk

Instead of keeping everything important on your smartphone, move some of your accounts to a tablet. Companies like T-Mobile include tablets in their telecommunication plans. You are much less likely to lose a Nexus 7 than you are to leave a smartphone lying around. However, keep in mind that you need to protect your tablets just as aggressively as you do your smartphones, and most of the methods listed here can be used for tablets as well as smartphones.

Virtual Private Network

If you use your smartphone over a public Wi-Fi, any hacker on that network can lift your passwords and usernames as well as any text that you transmit. You can avoid this by sticking with your phone’s data plan and accessing what you need over 4G. However, that can get expensive.

Express VPN enables you to save on data charges and use shared Wi-Fi safely via a VPN (virtual private network). For less than $9 per month, VPN Express will encrypt everything that you transmit over your phone, making it impossible for anyone to track you and giving you peace of mind when using public Wi-Fi.

FaceLock Pro

The FaceLock Pro app for Android and iOs devices won’t unlock anything unless it sees your face. Based on powerful face identification software, FaceLock Pro can be used to protect your entire phone or just your most sensitive apps. Unless your twin steals your phone, this app will keep thieves at bay.

Fido Anti-Theft

Better than a guard dog, this free app works with Android and iOs devices. If anyone swipes your phone, you can set off an audible alarm using this app. If the thief is in earshot, the alarm will alert you to the location of the phone, and if that tactic fails, Fido can remotely lock or wipe out your phone. As an added bonus, Fido scans each app that you download, keeping your phone safe from malware, spyware, and other malicious content.

Last Word

In addition to the fancy apps listed above, CTIA, The Wireless Association, reminds you to make sure that you don’t overlook the basics. Lock your phone with a hard-to-guess password; be aware of your surroundings, and guard your phone as if it is your wallet. Finally, save everything in a second secure spot like a cloud, external hard drive, or a PC to ensure that even if something is lost, you can reclaim it. Connect with Linda at the Identity Advocate for more educational opportunities. 310-8310-4400

One of the Tax Division’s highest priorities is prosecuting people who use stolen identities to steal money from the United States Treasury by filing fake tax returns that claim tax refunds. Working to stop Stolen Identity Refund Fraud, or SIRF, is vital because these schemes threaten to disrupt the orderly administration of the income tax system for hundreds of thousands of law abiding taxpayers and to cost the United States Treasury billions of dollars.

SIRF crimes are complicated to prosecute because they are often perpetrated by large criminal enterprises with individuals at all stages of the scheme: those who steal the Social Security Numbers (SSN) and personal identifying information, those who file false returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), those who facilitate obtaining the refunds, and the masterminds who promote the schemes. These criminal enterprises are able to exploit the speed and relative anonymity of highly automated systems for storing personal information, preparing and filing tax returns electronically, and generating income tax refunds quickly—often in the form of electronic payments.

Identities used in SIRF crimes may be stolen from anywhere. SIRF criminals have used social security numbers stolen from institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, and public death lists, thereby exploiting some of the most vulnerable members of our communities—the elderly, the infirm, grieving families. However, everyone with a social security number is potentially vulnerable to having their identity stolen. According to the IRS, from 2008 through May of 2012, the Service has identified more than 550,000 taxpayers who have had their identities stolen for the purpose of claiming false refunds in their names.

Click here to read the entire article: http://www.justice.gov/tax/Stolen_Identity_Refund_Fraud.htm

The Tax Division has had considerable success in SIRF prosecutions, which have generated long sentences for those convicted of SIRF crimes. This page contains links to articles, websites, and press releases with information on how the Justice Department and IRS are dealing with SIRF crimes, guidance for citizens whose identities have been stolen and used to file false tax returns, and efforts of the Justice Department to prosecute these crimes – Kathryn Keneally, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division   Press Release Announcing SIRF Enforcement Initiative

Connect with Linda at 310-831-4400 or at info@theidentityadvocate.com to mobilize your efforts of protection and recovery when it happens to you!