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Sunday, March 18, 2012

American Greed: Funny Money

American Greed: Cybercrime

Money Order Fraud

In today’s economy many are choosing to open their own businesses. As good of an idea as this is, it is making the market for scammers prime. How can this be? The name of the game is “Money Order Fraud”. The scammer usually resides outside of the United States lines and he or she will send an email or a letter telling you that they would like to send you a money order for your service or in exchange for an item that you are selling.

How is can payment be a bad thing? When you receive the payment for the service or item the money order will be written out in funds that are much larger than you anticipated. The sender then will tell you that his or her secretary has made an error and please send him or her back the change from the money order.

If you comply to their request the money is deposited into your account. You send out the remainder funds to the scam artist in cash, and the bank finds that the money orders were fraudulent within a week. You now are a victim of money order fraud, and are expected to pay the bank back the funds in which you distributed. The only trace you have left of your perpetrator is a fictitious name, address, and email.

These scams artists target online auctions and classified ads, people who work at home, debt collectors, and pleas for help. In addition to finding people through ads or offering you a job working from home they also send spam telling you that they have money stuck in a foreign account and will offer a large percentage if you help them to get it out. Also they may offer a large commission to clear a debt of someone overseas through a debt collector. The debt collector sends the surplus of funds back to the payee only to find that they have been scammed within the week.

A red flag should rise if the correspondent is from a third world country, currently many of these scams are seen coming out of Canada, Europe, or Africa. Unfortunately the types of scams may range vastly or alter from the ones previously mentioned. Fraud for among scammers is an occupation, and the more that they become noticed or the closer we get to catching the perpetrator the more complex their schemes will become in order to detour conviction.

The banks are now closing accounts in which faulty deposits are going into. Just like us they don’t know the extent of which the scammer is capable of. Depositing the money order may open up a gateway for access to your accounts. As a precaution banks are taking severe measures.

There are many things that you can do to protect yourself. The first and foremost step is to be aware. Next make others aware. If you think you are in jeopardy of being victimized do not accept the offer that is being given. Report what is happening through the Federal Bureau of Investigations as soon as possible by visiting their website. If you are unsure you can request that the payee make arrangements to pay you through a United States International Bank. By asking for this you have a better chance of the fraud being detected before the check is cleared.


Works Cited
Larson, A. (2011). Money Order Fraud. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from Expert Law: http://www.expertlaw.com/library/consumer/money-order-fraud.html

Social Networking Fraud

When you hear the phrase ‘social networking’; what pops into your mind? Maybe MySpace, Match.com, Twitter, EHarmony, Facebook? Okay what if I mentioned social networking fraud? Fraud is defined by consumerfraudreporting.org as “a deception practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain”. Where does social networking fit into this? The more gateways that we create for open communication the greater risk we have for becoming victimized by con artists. The key is to recognize the ways you are being scammed through social networking sites and to take preventative measures to protect yourself.

About a century ago social networking began with the telegram and Morse code. In today’s age we have become more complex, with the internet in place we have taken social networking to a whole new level. Most of us are familiar with sites such as MySpace, Linked-In, Twitter, and Facebook; they have become a second nature, a way of keeping in contact, meeting new people, and keeping our friends, and family informed of the latest events in our lives. They allow for us to post pictures, locations, and join groups from virtually anywhere. We become so fascinated and integrated with the new programs that we forget to protect ourselves from the underlying dangers that are presented. According to scambusters.org there are five common types of social networking fraud that puts you, the user, at great risk of becoming victimized.

The first one is probably the hardest one for the untrained eye to recognize as it is the unintentional downloading and installation of malware. Malware can be presented in the form of an application such as; a calendar, photos, games, or even posts with quotations. Many of us look at some of these applications for their usefulness and do not think twice about why they are free or what the total cost of running an application like this could be.

The cost can be downloading spyware, Trojans, and viruses to your computer. Spyware is an add-on that extracts identifiable data from your computer and releases it onto the internet without any warning. There may be warning signs disclosed in a privacy statement for the program you are about to run or install, but most people either do not take the time to read the whole statement or feel that they are exempt from such malware. Trojans are accepted and installed the same way as Spyware can be, but with less warning and more violation. Trojans can see the pages you visit, passwords you type, documents you send, and they have full access to your files. It would be like having an imaginary friend watching over your shoulder every time you log on to your computer with unimaginable motives. Viruses have many different variations of what they can do to your operating system, but they hold danger just as Spyware and Trojans where they can end up accessing personal information on your computer.

The reason why malware is more susceptible on social networking sites is because everyone who is added onto your profile is supposedly someone you know, or feel that you can trust. Whenever there is underlying trust within a site it makes it easier for people such as hackers, or other perpetrators to gain access to your files or more importantly your personal information. Even social networking sites have a hard time maintaining and detecting the amount of malware that is passed within a site. It is because of the amount of users, and because of the amount of applications that are available that it becomes more of a nuisance to try to detect.

A simple solution to remaining protected from spyware, Trojans, and viruses is to not load unneeded applications that carry unwarranted risks. It is also important to not open links inside of emails as they may lead to the download of a security breach within your computer. Even if the email comes from one of your friend’s email accounts, if all that is listed is the URL to a website your friend’s computer might have a zombie that is spamming you and you should warn them as soon as possible. Another thing to remember is to never enter credit card information on a public or shared computer as you do not know if the computer is infected or if your information is being logged.

The second type of social networking fraud that is common is false identity which can tie to the third type of social networking fraud, identity theft. Neglecting to set up a social networking account does not necessarily mean you are protected from being exploited. The truth of the matter is that on sites such as Facebook.com there is a way for people to name your face in a photo; also known as tagging the photo. Once your name is out there it just takes an ordinary person who is bored a matter of minutes to set up an account with that name, and start adding to their friends list. If that doesn’t scare you, then what should is the friends, and family members that are adding this fictitious character thinking that it is you, someone has assumed your false identity.

They may ask a friend or family member to meet up with them for a coffee, or to loan them money via PayPal, etc. This example may seem like a stretch, but the reason why it is an example of is because someone has pulled it off before. Pictures from these Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking site profiles can be pulled, downloaded, or saved onto a complete stranger’s home computer which allows the perpetrator to further masquerade their identity. They utilize the pictures they have saved as profile pictures or store them in an online album labeled ‘family’ in an attempt to assume your identity. If you were a parent, how would you feel to see pictures of your son or daughter on a pedophile’s computer, along with saved conversations through email or messenger? Then when you ask your son or daughter about how they became friends with this person, you found that they posed as a family friend or distant relative. A simple solution and preventative measure for this type of fraud is to talk to your kids about the dangers, or limit their access to these types of social networking sites until you feel they are responsible enough to not add anyone who they do not personally know, or until you feel like they could recognize if someone was posing as a friend or family member that really is not. You must also take the same adhered warning when using these sites, as adults are not excluded from the schemes.

The fourth type of social networking fraud is profile page hacks. The easier it is for you to create an account, the easier it becomes for a hacker to access your account. A hacker is someone who breaks a webpage and subsequently vandalizes, installs invisible code running in the background for malicious purposes, or utilizes your identification for spamming purposes. They may choose to do one or more of these attacks during a hack depending on how complex their skills are or what their motives might be. The majority of page hackers do what they do for fun, or just to prove that they can. The data they can steal can be harmful to others as we have seen a few examples in the recent past of hackers exploiting governmental sites where information stored was considered confidential. The number one method to prevent being hacked rests in the password. The stronger the password, the less chance there is of someone guessing it or using a program to crack it. Also, it is a good idea to frequently change your password so that if someone figures it out they do not have constant access to your webpage, email, profile, or whatever else it is that they are trying to access.

The last social networking fraud is sending and receiving spam. This correlates with our first type, which is the unintentional installation of malware onto your computer. By opening an email from someone that you are unfamiliar with you are putting yourself at risk of being victimized, and if you do know the sender but the email contains a fishy link- do not open it. People who befriend others on these social networking sites do not know who is sitting on the other end of the computer screen. A spammer might send you an application that can be downloaded, and used against you by utilizing the information of pages you frequently visit. They then will make you a target of their sales as they constantly promote themselves or other businesses through email. There are also those spammers that claim they are stuck on a business trip, or lost someone they love and need you to help access accounts. It is important to remember that these emails are spam. Remember the saying ‘If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is’? Keep that in mind when you are reading through your emails daily.

Do not let all of the predators scare you from being active on social networking sites because whether you sign up for one or not we are all at risk of being victimized. To recap, all it takes is your name out there somewhere on the web for someone to be able to create an account and assume false identity. Therefore you must utilize these sites pro-actively. Only add friends or networks of people or companies that you are familiar with, and do not open attachments where you are unaware of its contents from anyone. Also be sure not to install programs onto your computer that are free unless you know what the true cost of running it could be. The ways that the world works today revolves around technology and its new innovations. Some social networking is almost essential and you simply cannot let all the bad people in the world sabotage a good thing. We must learn how people are becoming victimized so that we can circumvent the chances of being one of them. The social networking fraud discussed in this article are only five the most popular ways, and these ways vary among perpetrator to victim. The moment we become aware of fraud, and how people are becoming scammed we make it that much harder for the predator to attack; they get stronger with every success and awareness is the first step to weakening their scheme. The second step is to not fall for their schemes, and the last step is to make others aware of the risks that are involved in social networking sites.

Works Cited
Benivia. (2011, May 6). Consumer Fraud Reporting Glossary. Retrieved November 8, 2011, from Consumer Fraud Reporting: http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/
Landford, J. a. (2011). 5 Most Common Social Networking Scams. Retrieved November 8, 2011, from Scam Busters: www.scambustesters.org/socialnetworking.html
Slater, W. F. (2002). Internet History and Growth. Chicago: Chicago Chapter of the Internet Society.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

"'Tis one thing to be tempted, another to fall." - William Shakespeare

Imagine that you bank with National Credit Union. Over time you begin to notice funds slowly dissipating from your account, almost unnoticeably. When you analyze your bank statements it is clear that unauthorized transactions have been taking place. You panic and immediately begin to believe that you are the latest victim of identity theft. Not knowing how to approach the problem, you contact the Credit Union, who is of no help. Unbeknownst to you and the credit union, there is a criminal among them who has helped themselves to your hard-earned money. You are not a victim of identity theft but you are, however, a victim of embezzlement.


Embezzlement is defined by Cornell University as “the fraudulent taking of personal property by someone to whom it was entrusted”. Embezzlement transactions may be so small that it goes unnoticed by most people; the offender takes a minimal amount out of each client’s account (often referred to as “skim off the top”) and ends up with a huge score without raising any red flags. How is this scheme possible? The scenario given above is an actual case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of Pittsburgh has reported a female Corporate Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Credit Union in West Virginia was taking money out of user accounts to pay family members’ credit cards, personal expenses, and purchase luxuries. She was also using the bank’s status to forge checks from the Valley Credit Union. As of January 2010, she has pled guilty to embezzlement and money laundering in the amount of $8,989,484.00.


The Business Journals Serving the Greater Milwaukee Area states that the average embezzlement case in 2009 was in the amount of $1 million; whereas, in 2008 the average reported case of embezzlement was $2.2 million. This drastic drop could be due to the lack of reporting or the lack of catching the perpetrator taking money from a business. The Business Journal also reports that 63% of embezzlement perpetrators are women, but men tend to embezzle two times more money when they commit this crime. Reports also indicate that most perpetrators are in their 40’s when they develop an embezzlement scheme. Reasons for this age group committing embezzlement are not described in detail but it could be attributed to a mid- life crisis or the falling economy.


The problem with embezzlement is that we entrust someone with our property and/or monies. When someone abuses that trust on such high levels, it is hard to come to terms that we misjudged the source and handed them everything of value to us. The person can be a friend, employee, spouse, co-worker, professor, or virtually anyone with status. Many people see discrepancies in the work place or in personal accounts and chose to create their own theory as to how it happened. White collar offenses are ruled out all together because we choose to believe that we have been victimized by a stranger rather than a friend or acquaintance.


According to lawyershop.com there are four points that must be proven in order to create a case against embezzlement:” 1) The relationship between the defendant and the aggrieved party was a fiduciary one, 2) The lost property came into the defendant’s possession through that relationship, 3) The defendant fraudulently assumed ownership of the property or transferred it into the ownership of another,
4) The defendant’s misappropriation of the property was intentional.” In many embezzlement cases it is difficult to prove all four of these points. Lawyershop.com lists certain signs that may help detect if a person is embezzling funds: “missing documents, holes in accounting records, a large drop in profits, a jump in business with one particular customer, customers complaining about double billing, repeated duplicate payments, numerous outstanding checks or bills, disparity between accounts payable and receivable, [and the] disappearance of petty cash.” Smaller indicators that may give the perpetrator away are: “they go out of their way to work overtime, spend more lavishly than their salary might indicate, [or] has the same address as a vendor” (lawyershop.com).


Many of the businesses that have filed claims against employees for embezzlement have been investigated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) before they even suspected that there was an inside source involved in missing monies. In other cases the business was in the process of being liquidated due to a large deficit acquired as a result of the embezzled funds Much of the prosecution of embezzlement depends on the findings of the employer. If an employer suspects that embezzlement is going on within their business it is up to them to report it to the FBI or the IRS so that a thorough investigation can be carried out immediately. The employer has the responsibility of locating which employees are suspects in the crime, who had access to the missing funds, and evidence to back up their claims, such as discrepancies in accounts or logs. Embezzlement is one of the most overlooked crimes because it is a crime of opportunity and is usually carried out by a trusted source. It is impossible for businesses to avoid hiring someone that has the capability to slowly swindle victims; it is a very undetectable trait. Those that commit embezzlement do not plan on getting caught, and many do get away with this crime. As long as people are greedy and conning, embezzlement is here to stay.


Works Cited

Embezzlement. (2010). Retrieved August 3, 2010, from LawyerShop.com: http://www.lawyershop.com/practice-areas/criminal-law/white-collar-crimes/embezzlement/

Institute, L. I. (2010). Embezzlement. Retrieved August 3, 2010, from Cornell University Law School: http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/embezzlement

Justice, D. o. (2010, January 4). Former Credit Union CEO Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement and Money Laundering. Retrieved August 3, 2010, from Department of Justice Pittsburgh: http://pittsburgh.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/pt010410.htm

Kirchen, R. (2010, January 15). Koss victim of top 2009 embezzlement case. Retrieved August 3, 2010, from The Business Journal Serving the Greater Milwaukee Area: http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2010/01/11/daily58.html

Monday, July 19, 2010

Plastic Creates Financial Problems

The bank calls you to inform you of a large transaction that has just occurred on your credit card. You find out that you have just purchased over four thousand dollars worth of songs from iTunes, but the irony is that you cannot remember the last time you bought anything from that site. How is this possible? You have just been victimized by credit card fraud. What is credit card fraud? Credit card fraud is defined by www.ehow.com as “.,. the use of a credit card with the intent to commit fraud. It can be committed with a person's personal card, with a business card, a stolen card or a counterfeit card.”

According to SC Magazines a recent two year investigation has resulted in the arrests of 178 people in 12 countries for involvement in an international credit card fraud ring. The arrests were a result of 84 raids that have taken place in: “France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Australia, Sweden, Greece, Finland, Hungary and the United States”. This “ring” is just one example of how fraud stretches nationwide and is not subject to the United States alone. These people were running an underground operation where they would take credit card information through scams and manufacture counterfeit cards to make ATM withdrawals and retail purchases. SC Magazines reports that “the police have found over 5,000 counterfeit cards and over 120,000 stolen credit card numbers…[in addition] they have found 11 laboratories” that have specialized interest in creating the counterfeit cards. These people who have been placed under arrest are believed to have run many underground operations such as: “robbery with force, fraud, extortion, sexual exploitation, and money laundering, earning $24.5 million from illegal activities.” Even though 178 have been caught for this heinous act, there are many other scams, and scam artists out there that are trying to take advantage of the public’s trust in using a piece of plastic to pay bills.

An example of how a credit card number can be obtained through a scam and used for fraudulent activities is through some of our trusted corporations that we utilize monthly to pay our bills for cell phones, electricity, cable, car, insurance, and more. This can be as simple as a business that you pay every month contacting you and reporting that you forgot to sign the check, or your payment was never received and asking you if you would like to submit a payment over the phone using a credit card. This happened in Salt Lake City just this week; according to the article “Rocky Mountain Power Warns of Credit Card Fraud”, scam artists have been reaching their consumers and telling them that their checks were not signed and then they proceed to ask for the person’s credit card information. This is not how the company conducts business, they have a standard procedure of asking for a person’s account number to verify the identity of the consumer when dealing with bills. It’s important to remember how businesses usually verify account information and to recognize these procedures when you are being contacted in response to a bill that was supposedly never paid. If you have caller identification you can always check the number, and if the phone call seems phony you may want to try contacting the businesses headquarters to verify the transaction.

These acts of fraud are not always conducted by criminals, sometimes it can be friends or family members that have gained access to our accounts over time. Just recently a blind woman had asked a trusted friend to make an online purchase of a computer bag for her, and had given her the credit card to use for payment. The card never left the woman’s possession, but weeks later another friend had found that the same card had been used to make additional purchases that the blind woman could not have made without assistance. Not knowing who would target this helpless woman, she decided to ask her friend who had made an online purchase for her if she had used the card. According to the Eastern Arizona Courier the woman admitted that she might have used the card to pay some bills by accident thinking that it was her husband’s card. The blind woman contacted her bank and informed them of the fraudulent activity on the card and the company informed her that they intended to press charges on the blind woman for letting her friend help her with the online purchases. The blind woman then informed the company that the only reason that the woman was allowed access to the card was because she was legally blind, and the company’s response was that she should have bought the item over the phone then. A phone purchase can be just as bad as giving a card to someone you trust for help because you never know who is on the other end.

Years ago we invented this ideal way of making purchases through a plastic piece that we call a credit card for the convenience of not having to carry wads of cash around, to establish credit, and to make online business transactions more efficient. Unfortunately over time the use of this item has become abused. There are ways of circumventing credit card fraud and protecting yourself from being victimized. The FBI warns that when making a purchase with a credit card you should: always make sure that the company is reputable, if online make sure the site is secure, limit purchases to within the country, always check for the security icon on a site before making a purchase, and if you suspect that your card has been stolen or is being abused report it as soon as possible. Just like every other crime possible to man, anyone can be a victim, but if you take the proper precautions and make yourself aware to some of the current scams going around your more likely keep yourself and your account secure from predators.

Works Cited

Definition of Credit Card Fraud. (2010). Retrieved July 18, 2010, from ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/about_5085291_definition-credit-card-fraud.html

Investigations, F. B. (2010). Internet Fraud. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from FBI.gov: http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/internetschemes.htm#credcard

James, A. (2010, July 19). Rocky Mountain Power warns of Credit Card Fraud. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from KSL.com: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=11627212&hl=12

Johnson, J. (2010, July 19). Blind woman victim of credit card fraud says friend took credit card information when helping her with an online purchase. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from Eastern Arizona Courier: http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2010/07/19/news/breaking_news/doc4c44d78639b98019652661.txt

Monday, July 5, 2010

HEALTH CARE FRAUD

Imagine being sick with something other than the flu or a common cold. Not knowing what is wrong with your body you call your most trusted physician in desperation. Upon your visit to the doctor you receive a two minute consultation that ends with the diagnosis of a disease that you are not familiar with. You are prescribed pain pills and medications. After a few days on the medication you are feeling worse causing you to call again for advice; and they then explain that you are experiencing severe side effects and schedule you for a follow up appointment. At that time you are prescribed alternate medications for your ailment and the same thing occurs. At what point do you stop calling your trusted physician for help? How would you feel if you saw another doctor who told you that there was no disease? If this scenario fits your life-style then you may be a victim of health care fraud. There is only one definition of the term, many signs of being a victim, and a group that is usually targeted in a scheme called health care fraud.

The government has only recently started its battle against health care fraud. In 1986 the first mention of health care fraud surfaced as the “Federal False Claims Act” (FCA); which states that any person that reports to “an officer or employee of the United States Government or a member of Armed Forces of the United States a false or fraudulent claim for payment or approval…is liable to the United States Government to pay for a civil penalty of no less than $5,000 and not more than $10,000, plus 3 times the amount of damages that are sustained because of the act of the person”. The Act was to be a cure to health care fraud which is the treatment of “ghost patients, upcoding, unbundling, and billing for unnecessary care”. Ghost patients are the people that the physicians claim to have treated but never existed or are deceased; they can also be names and information of people who are obtained through identity theft. The word upcoding refers to the billing for services that were rendered at a higher cost than the procedure or prescription entails. Unbundling is the billing for each procedure thoroughly as if each were different. Lastly billing for unnecessary care can range from falsifying treatments to prescribing treatments or medications that are not needed. The legislation did not work as a solvent to the problem of health care fraud but it is believed to be working as a deterrent. The extremely high numbers we are seeing in victims, restitution, and physicians involved in this activity are the proactive efforts of the government on schemes that have been brewing for years.

The media shows the felons that are being caught now and it giving the misperception that numbers of people being violated by health care fraud are drastically increasing and this was true in prior years. Between the years of 1995-2003 the nation saw a 7 percent decrease in pay to physicians. It was during that time that we started to see a rise in the amount of health care fraud. In fact according to the Anti-Fraud Resource Center there were more than 4 billion health care claims processed in 2007 totaling $2.26 trillion. These amounts of claims filed have a 3-10 percent fraud rate that totals between $68-$226 billion. Although this percentage seems small we can see in the dollar value the large amount of deficit. This is a lot of wasted tax dollars being spent on white-collar crime among one of the highest paying professions available. It is because of health care fraud that others are forced to pay higher premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.

One of the most horrific schemes of health care fraud recalled is a team of 3 physicians and a hospital administrator that would victimize elderly, homeless, and drug abusers for profit. These physicians were caught in 2002 after they had already made victims of approximately 750 people over a ten year span. This is only one incident that was found in a single year, and health care fraud has been happening for over two decades. They would captivate their victim’s attention through bribery such as: food, money, and cigarettes; and once they had them they would fictitiously diagnose them of symptoms by running tests that involved sticking needles into these people’s hearts.

They benefited from this practice by reporting to insurance agencies such as: Medical and Medicaid the procedures that had been done for compensation. Two people lost their lives due to this malpractice, but others were damaged physically and financially. The leader of the pack is now serving 12 ½ years in federal prison and facing approximately 12 million in restitution fees, and the others are currently serving time for their participation. There are many other stories like this one of small medical offices providing services for feign ailments just so that they can reap the benefits. It used to be easy for this type of practices to sneak through the wires because the practices were so small and there are many different insurance agencies for these places to report to. Doctor’s in most cases are a person’s saving grace as they have studied how to treat unbearable discomfort and pain. Greed and corruption is ruining the nations trust in medical practice. As we can see the motive for the actions of these people who originally studied medicine to help people has been purely demoralization due to greed, and in turn may be desperation in a deteriorating economy.

Most of the cases have the same victim profile: the elderly, homeless, and drug abusers. The reason for this is that the elderly are weak and an easy prey; plus most of their testimonies (if ever brought to court) will not stand due to memory loss, or enhanced illnesses. The homeless do not usually have access to health care so this makes it easy to accept any diagnosis for an issue that is being experienced. The drug abusers are also an easy target because they will fill any prescription that is given to them time and time again. Each time they fill a prescription this is revenue for the physician who prescribed it as they file claim to insurance agencies. The targets are of different age groups, but all the same in the aspect that they don’t have many resources, need medical attention, and are gullible to any prognosis.

In response to health care fraud congress passed new legislation and an anti-fraud organization was established. According to National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) congress passed the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996…which specifically established health care fraud as a federal criminal offense”. The penalties for this offense is the eligibility of a federal prison term of up to ten years with a plausible separate charge and sentence for anyone who was harmed physically due to the malpractice with a maximum of 20 years, and if a patient died due to negligence the perpetrator may become a lifer. The “Coordinated Fraud and Abuse Control Program” was also born from health care fraud and allows federal and state law enforcement to share information with private health insurers. The NHCAA is a non-profit organization that specializes in aiding efforts in the private and public sectors in the detection, investigation, prosecution, and prevention of health care fraud. The government is still fighting the battle against health care fraud but if we continue to follow the investigations we can see that most of these schemes have developed over time. The best way to aid in the battle is to: treat your health identification card like a credit card, be informed, read your policy, and most importantly report fraud when you suspect that you are a victim of it.

Works Cited

Association, N. H.-F. (2010). The Problem of Health Care Fraud. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from Anti-Fraud Resource Center: http://www.nhcaa.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=anti_fraud_resource_centr&wpscode=TheProblemOfHCFraud

Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. (n.d.). Retrieved July 4, 2010, from US Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.cms.gov/smdl/downloads/SMD032207Att2.pdf

Health Care Statistics. (2010, July). Retrieved July 4, 2010, from HealthCareProblems.org: http://www.healthcareproblems.org/health-care-statistics.htm

Johnson, C. (2007, July 19). U.S. Targets Health-Care Fraud, Abuse. Retrieved July 4,2010, from The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/18/AR2007071802461.html?hpid=sec-business

Levinson, H. (2010, December 26). What is Healthcare Fraud? Retrieved June 4, 2010, from Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/x-33884-St-Louis-Health-Insurance-Examiner~y2009m12d26-Healthcare-FraudYoure-Getting-Ripped-Off

Slade, S. R. (2000). Health Care Fraud: How far does the False Claims Act reach? Retrieved July 4, 2010, from Quackwatch: http://www.quackwatch.org/02ConsumerProtection/fca.html