Medical Equipment CEO Sentenced
Tanya Grant will serve 80 months in prison for a health care fraud scheme in which she purchased lists of Medicare patient names from companies overseas. She then billed Medicare for purportedly supplying these patients with durable medical equipment. In many cases, Medicare was billed even though no equipment was shipped. Grant forged physician orders…
Servicemembers: DFAS is Not Calling You about Your Pay
People are reporting a new twist on a banking imposter scam targeting the military. In this latest con, imposters call servicemembers and pretend to be from or working with DFAS (for us civilians, that’s the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, a Department of Defense agency that handles getting pay to servicemembers). Here’s how the scam plays out.…
How Timeshare Exit Scams Work – and How to Avoid Them
Maybe you bought a timeshare at a resort a while back and have found you don’t have the time or inclination to use it or are growing tired of paying the rising annual maintenance fee. Those are valid reasons for wanting to relinquish your timeshare, but they also make you a prime target for timeshare exit scammers,…
5 Ways to Build Better Passwords
You can protect yourself from data breaches, hackers and scammers in loads of ways. But always use three basic tenets for the passwords that multiply with every site you visit. • Don’t share them. • Change them often. • Don’t leave them lying around. Beyond the basics, the real key to building and managing your…
Men Charged in Health Care Kickback Scheme
John Grisham, Rob Wilburn, and Richard Speights Jr. have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks, resulting in the submission of over $107 million in false and fraudulent genetic testing claims to Medicare. The defendants allegedly owned and operated a genetic testing laboratory, Trinity Clinical…
Did Your Dating App Match Just Ask You for Money?
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, you or your friends might be thinking about love. But not everyone is — some are just looking to get into your pockets. Read on so you can spot and report scammers before they trick someone you care about out of money. Romance scammers might contact you on…
Organized Crime Gangs Earn Big Bucks in Shift to Fraud
Smelling huge profits in targeting older Americans, organized gangs —the underworld syndicates that once focused on drug trafficking, gambling and other high-profile crimes —are increasingly entering the consumer fraud business, according to interviews with several law enforcement officials. These syndicates, often based overseas, are using impersonation, intimidation and, in rarer cases, violence to steal from…
Owners of Mobile Phlebotomy Company Plead Guilty
Gabriella Santibanez and Lisa Hazard pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit over $7 million in health care fraud. Court documents show that they ran a mobile phlebotomy company, PhlebXpress Inc., that provided phlebotomy and other medical collection services at patients’ homes and long-term care facilities. They agreed to bill Medicare for services provided that were…
BBB Scam Alert: How to Spot a Dating Scam on Social Media
Romance scams are more common than ever. Even if you don’t use dating apps, you might still be targeted by one. BBB Scam Tracker is getting reports from dating scam victims who were conned through social media. Get to know the signs, so you can spot a fake romance before getting in too deep. (Read More)
Money Can Be Stolen From Your Bank Account: Here’s How to Lower Your Risk
When Nicole Brandes, 54, did a routine check of her three linked Bank of America accounts online recently, she noticed something alarming: $10,000 was missing. The Washington, D.C., art teacher looked closer to find that $9,300 from her business account and $700 from her personal checking account had first been transferred to a fourth account…
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