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One of my favorite sites, WalletPop.com, has a cautionary tale about an identity theft/computer hacking scam in Grand Forks, ND.

Apparently, fake parking tickets were put on cars. The tickets had a web site where people could view photos of their illegally parked cars and pay a fine. By visiting the site, the victims downloaded extremely vicious malware that captured their keystrokes (what you type in) and account numbers and passwords. Read the whole story here.

Pay attention to detail. Government sites, like ones where you pay parking tickets, should end in .gov, not .com.

Let me share a recent personal experience with trying to protect myself from identity theft. I recently received what turned out to be a legitimate phone call from my health insurance company, who wanted to tell me about a new program they are offering. The call went something like this:

Them: This is Rebecca from XXX Insurance Company. We have a new benefit for Donna Chmura, but because of HIPAA privacy regulations, I cannot talk to anyone but Donna. Can you verify your home address and date of birth?

Me: No, I don’t give out personal information over the phone.

Them: Let me give you an 800-number where you can call us back.

Me: Thank you, but that doesn’t help me. I have no idea who will be answering the phone at this number, either.

I hung up and called the customer service number on the back of my insurance card, and asked them what was going on. They had no idea, but nicely confirmed that there were no holds on my claims.

After receiving two more calls, curiosity got the better of me, and I Googled that number. Indeed it was an informational and educational program offered by the insurance company for people with a certain medical condition. There were also a number of web sites with people upset about these phone calls and trying to verify the caller.

I went to another of my favorite sites, consumerist.com (which follows numerous personal finance, customer service and consumer-oriented stories) and found the email addresses for the executive officers of my health insurance company. I suggested that an initial letter informing their customers of the new program might be a better way to reach their target market than an informational call where they need my personal information before they can tell me why they are calling.

But my greater point is to think carefully before telling anyone your personal information. We are so trusting and helpful as a culture, particularly in the South, but it is imperative to keep your wits about you.

Tags: computer hacking, HIPAA, Identity Theft

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 9:37 am and is filed under Consumer Law, Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.