Prevent Medical Identity Theft

Ways to Prevent Medical Identity Theft

You have probably heard of the basic identity theft crime before, such as online identity theft, but do you know what medical identity theft is? Medical identity theft is the crime in which a person steals your identity in order to get medical attention. For instance they may steal your credit in order to pay for a procedure that they are having done, so it will be charged to you and not them.

One of the biggest problems with the identity theft crime is that there are very few laws against it, and so often times the person who is the victim will end up having to suffer while the person who actually committed the crime will get away scot free.

Prevent Medical Identity Theft

Although there is as of yet no way to avoid being a victim of identity theft for sure, fortunately there are a few things that you can do to prevent medical identity theft. It is crucial that you are cautious with your personal information at all times and think sensibly if you want to prevent medical identity theft.

To prevent medical identity theft, one of the best things you can do is promptly remove mail that is lying around your home or work site. You also want to shred all important documents that contain any personal information on them, and this includes things that you may not think are that important, such as your ATM receipts.

It is pretty unbelievable, but identity thieves can actually quite easily use your ATM receipts along with a bit of your other personal information and steal your identity, so be smart about this and always take your receipt home with you and then shred with the other documents.

This means never throwing out any documents you receive in the mail without shredding or at least ripping them up, even credit card applications and documents of the sort.

These are great ways to help you prevent medical identity theft, but just to be sure you are going to want to keep an eye on your credit report. Check it frequently, at least every couple of months or so, to make sure that there are no discrepancies. You will usually be able to see if someone has stolen your identity and is making purchases in your name, especially if they are using your credit cards, because this sort of information will show up on your credit report.