Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Prescription Drug Abuse & Identity Theft

Cedar City Rotary learns about ID theft and prescription drug abuse

[Source:thespectrum.com]

CEDAR CITY — Cedar City Police lieutenants Darin Adams and Keith Millett informed Cedar City Rotary members on Tuesday about identity theft schemes trickling in from Las Vegas, prescription drug abuse and gang issues facing Festival City, USA.
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Nevada has the nation’s third-worst identity theft problem, the Federal Trade Commission reported last week, as Nevadans filed 2,930 identity theft complaints in 2007. Adams and Millett said Southern Utah should heed that statistic as a warning to be alert to the frauds occurring about 150 miles away.

“We haven’t experienced the number of identity theft cases that Las Vegas has, but that doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to it,” said Adams, who also announced his promotion from sergeant to lieutenant at the meeting. “We need to be aware that these scams are happening so if they do appear here we can do something about it right away.”

In 2008, 9,101 cases were reported to the Las Vegas Metropolitan identity theft and forgery task force, the Las Vegas Sun reported. A rising scam identified by Adams in Las Vegas among those cases is medical identity theft. Adams said health care information is being stolen by thieves making appointments at doctor’s offices or hospitals posing as the victim of the identity theft. This can happen to anyone with a health insurance card, he said.

The grave consequences are when the victim gets the medical bills or when records are corrupted with incorrect information, creating potentially life-threatening situations for the real patient, Adams said.

To learn more about this story, please read tomorrow's online and print edition of The Spectrum & Daily News.

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