Identity Theft

Medical-identity theft - the stealing of Medicare and other information from patients and doctors - is by some measures the fastest-growing form of ID theft. These sites help deal with it. Privacy advocates say not to carry your Social Security number in your wallet, but Medicare recipients are stuck with insurance ID cards that carry their SSNs. The Medicare bureaucracy is actively resisting change because of the expense of instituting a different identifying system. So, what to do?

Identity theft continues to plague consumers both online and off. So it's important to review basic safety measures. These sites could save you the expense and trouble of becoming a victim. Deter, detect, defend. Victims spend a total $5 billion yearly trying to undo identity theft. "Deter, detect and defend" against it, the Federal Trade Commission advises in a video on this page. Remove from your wallet anything with your Social Security number on it. And "be careful about your trash," by investing in a shredder.

Dear Harry: Last summer, I became a victim of identity theft. It was a mess to clear up, but I think I'm OK now. My credit-card statements are all OK and so are my store accounts, but I now have a new problem. Two of the major credit- reporting companies are badgering me with emails, and one called to urge me to put me on their credit-monitoring systems. I wouldn't mind doing this, but the cost is more than $130 a year. Do I have to go this route in order to make sure the person who stole my identity doesn't do it again?

A former IRS employee who allegedly used her position to steal her landlord's identity faces up to 46 years in prison and a fine of $1.2 million following her indictment on charges of identity theft. Domeen Flowers, 48, was hired as a mail room clerk in 2007 at the Internal Revenue Service's offices in Philadelphia. In June 2009, the Kensington woman used IRS computers to get information that allowed her to apply for credit cards under her landlord's name, prosecutors said. When she attempted to use one of the cards to pay a $1000 gas bill, the company put a hold on the account.

FROM THE OUTSIDE, the Oasis Holistic Healing Village, housed in an Italianate former mansion on a leafy block near Rittenhouse Square, appeared as serene as its name suggested. Except that behind the extravagant stone facade, the man wearing the scrubs inside the chiropractor's office was a liar, a thief and, judging by what law-enforcement sources say, a creep. Federal prosecutors say Tahib Smith Ali had no license or medical certification when he bought the business from a chiropractor in December 2008.

The U.S. Attorney's Office indicted a Delaware County woman Tuesday who allegedly sold children's identity information to a West Philadelphia tax preparer so that customers could use the children as fake dependents on income-tax filings. Shirl Robinson, 46, was charged with conspiracy, identity theft, and other counts for providing details that resulted in a total of about $78,000 worth of fraudulent tax payments to 10 of the firm's customers, said U.S. attorney's spokeswoman Patricia Hart.

A Philadelphia man pleaded guilty to submitting $1.5 million worth of claims for chiropractic treatments to Independence Blue Cross, Zane David Memeger. U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia, said. Prosecutors said that in 2009, Tahib Smith Ali, 35, posed as a chiropractor and physical therapist while operating a Philadelphia clinic known as Oasis Holistic Healing Village on South 17th Street in Center City and submitted claims under the name and medical provider number who no longer worked at the clinic.

A Gloucester County woman was charged Monday with obtaining $536,044 in loans using fake IDs and phony documents, federal prosecutors said. Katrina Taniesha Waters, 32, of Williamstown, used the fraudulent documents and five false identities to obtain loans from Police & Fire Federal Credit Union, Navy Federal Credit Union, Philadelphia Federal Credit Union, American Heritage Federal Credit Union, Freedom Federal Credit Union, and Susquehanna Bank,...

?1? Tacony woman charged in toddler deaths Ditman Street near Levick A woman accused of killing her two 18-month-old twins last week is being held without bail. Authorities said Tuesday that 41-year-old Stacey Smalls faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the twins, named Adam and Eve. She is also accused of the attempted murder of her 4-year-old daughter. Investigators believe one twin was strangled and the other was drowned.

A South Jersey woman was sentenced to more than five years in prison after she submitted 90 student loan applications seeking more than $1.7 million. La'Vada Cruse, 25, of Browns Mills, was successful in garnering 17 of those loans and collected more than $192,000, prosecutor's said. In federal court in Camden, Cruse admitted that she applied for more than 90 loans in her own name and the names of her family whose names and social security numbers she used without their permission.