Dubiln Packard

identity theft

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How To Protect Your Financial Information From Credit Card Hacks

TargetBy now many of you I’m sure have heard about the breach of credit card information by hackers who infiltrated the information data-bases of Target and Neiman Marcus (or Needless Markup as my wife likes to call them) and may be wondering just how to protect your financial information.

What is interesting about these data thefts is not so much that yet another one or two occurred but that these types of information breaches are happening regularly and many times the companies either don’t tell us about them or wait until a better time to tell us so we don’t stop shopping at a their stores.

For example, Stacey Vanek Smith of Market Place Business reported that Neiman Marcus knew about the data breach in mid-December but only announced it after the Holiday shopping season was over.  And Target didn’t tell the entire story until several days later and even then seemed to manage the information it did release.  Often such announcements are made on slow news days in order to minimize the impact.

Use of credit cards and debit cards is so common, we rarely use cash at all. So, what should you do to protect your date from these on-going breaches that are happening on a regular basis?  Pay with cash only?  Probably not.

How to protect your financial information.

You simply cannot control the data once you provide it to a retailer but what you can do is make your data un-useable if it is stolen.  Perhaps one good idea might be to regularly change your credit card numbers by calling your credit card provider and telling them you lost your card.  They will take immediate action to in-activate the old number and provide you with a new one right away.  At the same time, any charges that come on that card will not be charged to you since you reported the card as lost.

This can be a bit of an inconvenience but it will be effective.

Let me know if you have any good ideas to protect your financial information.

 

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How can I protect my medical identity

Most people are unaware of the growing threat of medical identity theft but it can be serious if someone steals your protected health information (PHI), otherwise known as your “medical identity,” to gain access to medical services, to procure drugs, or to defraud private insurers or government benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Your medical identity consists of your health information such as medical history, allergies to drugs, blood type, prescriptions, and of course your social security number and health care provider.

The transformation to electronic record-keeping has made it easier for some to obtain your PHI by some but most often, the theft is done by someone close to you.

In a recent Survey on Medical Identity Theft published by Ponemom, it was found that the thief is most likely to be someone the victim knows very well.  In the study which surveyed 700 victims of medical identity theft, most cases result not from a data breach but from the sharing of personally identification credentials with family and friends.  Or, that family members take the victim’s credentials without permission.

If someone uses your medical information, such use could contaminate the your health records with erroneous information such as blood type, serious health conditions, and prescription drugs.

Also, if a friend or family member uses your medical insurance to obtain treatment, you could become liable for the amount of the charges not covered by the insurance and possibly all of the charges once the insurance company realizes fraud was involved.  Receiving a bill from a medical provider might be the first sign that something is wrong and should be acted on quickly.

Example:

Jack was an Army Reservist who was called for duty in Afghanistan.  When he left, he put his medical insurance card form his employer in his dresser drawer for safe keeping.  While he was away, his brother, Bob, who had lost his job and therefore his health insurance, used Jack’s card to obtain medical treatment for a serious illness.

When Jack returned from service, he was almost terminated from his job for letting his brother use his card while he was away.  Of course he hadn’t but he had to go through the pain and effort of clearing his records while his brother was prosecuted for stealing medical services.

All of this could have been avoided if Jack kept his medical insurance card in a safer place.

How to keep your medical identity safe:

  • Keep your records in a lock box
  • Don’t share your records, even casually with another family member unless it is absolutely necessary
  • If you do share your information, keep a record of what information you shared and with whom
  • If you lose your wallet containing medical information, be sure to report the loss to your insurance company right away so your account can’t be breached

We all should be aware of the negative consequences of a medical identity theft and take steps to safe-guard our data.