Steven Weisman - author of "50 ways to protect your identity in the digital age", professor at Bentley University and editor of the blog Scamicide.com - said that people think that the elderly are targeted for identity theft because they are confident and less likely to complain about the flight, usually because of embarrassment. "they should not be [embarrassed]," he said. "Anyone can be a victim of identity theft. The elderly may also be targeted because they have assets and income"
The FTC has organized a forum called "Identity Theft Senior :. a problem at that time "in May, where experts on the subject of the world countries, including government employees, to discuss the growing issue of theft of senior citizen identity. The forum, which was recorded and posted on the website of the FTC brought life to this crime goes back and forth. The FTC has broken this crime into three main categories, including taxes and identity theft of government benefits, theft of identity and medical identity theft of long-term care.
tax and government benefits from identity theft
tax and identity theft government benefits occurs when a thief identity redirected the benefits of an elderly themselves. There are several ways that this can happen, but the tactics differ from the tax identity theft and government benefits identity theft.
The main way that the tax identity theft occurs is when an identity thief poses as someone else and file a tax return. During the deposition process, thieves direct funds to their fraudulent accounts or have funds placed on a prepaid debit card. After the funds are deposited or bank account or debit card, thieves remove them immediately. As discussed at the FTC forum, thieves, even troll the obituaries then hack the American master file Death - which contains the names of the full deceased, social security numbers, date of birth, date of death, and the name county and zip code of the last approaching the record - to obtain personal information about the deceased person. Once they have the information about the target, they drop their final declaration and raise funds before the family has a chance to drop.
identity theft government benefits works a little differently. This form of identity theft involves elderly misuse of the social security number of someone, financial information or other personal information in order to receive government benefits such as Social Security payments or workers' compensation. Identity thieves often obtain personal information by calling the elderly and posing as a representative of the administration of social security. Thieves say high that there is something wrong with their advantages, and they need to confirm their identity. They proceed to ask seniors to verify their social security number, date of birth, bank account numbers, and since the older person thinks it's a Social Security representative, they provide all their information with thieve personal.
medical identity theft
Another form of identity theft has serious repercussions for the elderly is medical identity theft. As discussed at the FTC forum on medical identity theft is a problem that affects the elderly more and more each day. This crime can be committed in various ways. Some of them include thieves using medical information for medical goods and services or misrepresentations on insurance from someone else. It is important to note that this type of identity theft is not only committed by strangers, and it can even be done by a doctor or health professional employees of malicious provider.
A study by Ponemon Institute, published in June 2012, found that 757 of 807 consumers - who self-reported that they had been victims of identity theft - said members of their family have been victims of medical identity theft. This number increased to 708 medical identity theft victims reported in connection with the investigation of the previous year. The elderly are often the target of this type of identity theft because they are already in the health care system and they can be vulnerable, especially disabled seniors.
There are two main ways of the crime occurs. The first is that the elderly "loan" their insurance to a family member or friend and the other is that their insurance information is stolen by a thief who maliciously intend to use the information them- same. The other is that thieves steal information Medicare for seniors. As discussed at the FTC forum, one of the main problems with medical identity theft is that Medicare insurance number consists of the social security number of the person insured, followed by a code of letter. Since their social security number is easily accessible, identity thieves offer "free" services - such as transport, food and care -. For Medicare patients then make copies of their insurance cards as well as collect other information, including information on their driving licenses
medical identity theft is a serious problem that can serious consequences for the victim, such as tax impacts - which may include paying more for medical services because previous services has not been done to the person who is actually performed - and especially medical impacts. These impacts may include interference with care and, in some cases, result in death, which occurs when a patient has not given the treatment they need because the thief received treatment, or a person is given the wrong type of blood, among other situations.
Long-term Care Identity Theft
It is a heartbreaking reality, but the final aspect that has had a huge impact on older people is theft identification of long-term care. Unfortunately, some of the people we trust to care for our elderly family members to enjoy the situation. As discussed at the FTC forum, there are two ways in which older people in long-term care. The first is called isolated opportunity that is when the caretaker and the elderly are isolated. This option usually happens to home care when the goalkeeper is alone with the elderly. The guard will enjoy this time alone to sort the bills of senior citizens to seek personal information such as credit card or Social Security numbers. The alternative is called enhanced opportunity and it occurs when an identity thief is surrounded by a huge amount of possibility of identity theft. This usually occurs in long-term care facility by a staff member or visitor who enjoys overwhelming amounts of the ability to retrieve personal information, because there are many elderly people in a region.
ways to protect the elderly
There are many different steps seniors can take to protect their identity. To avoid the tax identity theft FTC recommends that seniors file their taxes early. If the deposit by traditional mail, the FTC warns seniors not to place the tax return in their mailbox from the house to the mailperson to pick up. Instead, they should take themselves to the post office to make sure it is safe for the person mail. Also, if a person is filing the final declaration of their deceased spouse, they must ensure they do immediately because delay the filing process could open the possibility for identity thieves to file a reporting fraudulent earnings. It is important for seniors to know that the administration of social security does not call you, so if they receive a call from someone posing as a representative of the administration of social security, they should not reveal personal information and hang up the phone.
One of the steps that seniors should take to prevent medical identity theft is to protect the health-related information. They must not disclose this information to anyone other than their doctors checked. Seniors should get a copy of their health records of their health insurance company and make sure they have at hand. The presence of these files on hand can help relieve the stress of having to get if they become a victim of medical identity theft. Elderly people should also be wary "free" services because identity thieves often use these services as a means to steal medical or personal information.
The family of a top must step-in to help prevent identity theft from long-term care. The family members should look for warning signs of identity theft, which include paperwork or missing and few loads bills on credit cards or bank accounts. Families should also be alarmed if your boss has a new acquaintance or someone hovering around them all the time because, unfortunately, these people might be looking for a weak moment when they can steal personal information the elderly. If a family is moving family member in an assistant living facility then they should do additional research on the installation. the family members should also ask the representatives of the installation if they do background checks on their employees and what their policy on identity theft.
An additional step that seniors should take to detect identity theft is to actively monitor their credit reports. This can help the elderly and their families can catch identity theft medical care or long-term. When an elderly person is a victim of medical identity theft, bills may go unnoticed and are found in collections, which appear on a credit report. monitoring credit report will also be useful for older people who are victims of identity theft in the long term card because seniors and their families will be able to take a credit or applications to open new credit lines open.
Identity theft expert Weisman said the key to protect the identity of someone is to keep their private social security number if possible. "It is also logical for the elderly to have a credit freeze on their credit report to help protect their credit report to be consulted," he said. "Seniors and their children should also regularly monitor their bank accounts, credit card accounts and other financial assets for indications of identity theft to grab as soon as possible."
Even if all these steps are important, the most important thing for seniors and their families to do is to communicate the dangers of revealing too much personal information. older people should not be embarrassed to ask for advice or help s' they feel they are victims of identity theft, and having an open conversation on the subject could make seniors feel more comfortable talking if they become a victim.