Identity Thieves Love US Medicare Cards
Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer and several Senate Finance Committee members have been campaigning for a bipartisan bill that would discontinue the issuing of Medicare cards bearing Social Security numbers. To the lawmakers, standard Medicare identification cards printed with the numbers leave seniors and handicapped beneficiaries highly vulnerable to identity theft.
For their part, Medicare employees balk at such proposal, which requires $500 million to put into action. Medicare also argues that there is not much proof surrounding the prevalence of identity theft exploiting the cards. This insinuation belies a caveat by the Social Security Administration itself, as well as a report released by the Government Accountability Office.
Medicare wants a hint. Clearly it hasn’t heard of MySpace or Friendster, with which one could craft a persona by just filling out a few blanks. Or job search websites, whose repository of resumes and CVs is vulnerable. Why, one could even buy somebody else’s birth certificate! Or it could be as simple as rummaging through another’s trash for a Visa receipt.
Identity theft and pretexting has important ramifications. It’s something everybody should reckon with and pass laws for lest a beautiful stranger denies somebody of a loan or maxes out a credit card. A Social Security number alone can let somebody make off with another’s bank account. Other times, victims are unwittingly subscribed to reputation-tarnishing sites.
Adolescence was spent groping for an identity. People should enter old age keeping this hard-won thing intact and theirs to keep.
FTC announcement on pretexting.
View private investigators on pretexting.
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