identity theft HAS happened - sm
Posted By: MT on 2007-04-05
In Reply to: They might if they realized with SS# on medical records, identify theft could happen. nm - jane
I know of two transcriptionists that were arrested for identity theft. It took a long, long, long time to catch them, but they were finally caught. Also, I worked at a hospital that decided to outsource, and we tried telling the director that some of the doctors dictate SS# on the report to ensure that we have the right patient, and that that could pose a problem with outsourcing. But they didn't want to hear it or correct it.
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identity theft
Hey, I just saw that someone else is posting as "Nymt", whereas my handle is "nymt" all lower case. This may cause some confusion and I have no idea who was first. Any takers? No animosity, I promise.
Identity Theft - sm
The process of identity theft is one of gathering bits of information from various sources. Everyone will find Mitnick's book, "The Art of Deception" very entertaining and perhaps even frightening in this respect.
Small bits of information can be used to garner others that are more compromising. That's the bottom line.
But your resume itself can be enough, depending on the question that the fraudster wants to answer. For instance, what if the "phony" job ad was simply placed by an MT company in order to find out which of their employees are out there looking for jobs?
I get calls from "employers" wanting to "check references" on people. I always get their phone number, verify it, and then call them back. However, I'd bet that most do not take these precautions, so if I have your resume I can start to call your previous employers, tell them you've applied for a job and, believe it or not, if I'm skilled at social engineering, get your former supervisor to tell me a LOT of things you'd never suspect.
Bottom line: Guard your privacy like a mother lion guards her cubs.
Identity Theft is one reason
The medical records have SS#'s, full names, addresses, depending on header info it can have employer's name or ins. info. It is hard enough to prove/solve/control identity theft in our own country let alone coming out of other countries. That along with the mistakes in the reports that can have a very drastic effect on a patient's care/life. AND if you don't mind the work being done overseas for a fraction of what you are paid so that you no longer have a job...it can't get much more obvious than no paycheck coming in.
How would the info from our resumes be used for identity theft?
I guess I don't understand it. My social is not on my resume. Only my name and phone number and previous employers. How would one use this info to gain enough info to use my identity? I am just curious.
THEFT? That's going a bit far and is unfair..sm
While I agree that cherry-picking is not fair, either, I wouldn't go as far as to call it "theft". The MT is doing the same work, a day's or line's pay for a day's (or line's) pay. If you were to go to a store sale, and someone else were to pick out the most desirable items first, would you also call that stealing?
More importantly, I would not blame your fellow MT. (They are trying to put food on the table the same as everyone else.) I would blame the crappy, thoughtless dictators, and those who have made outsourcing possible, thus leaving all the crap work for us "cherry-picking" MTs.
This is tantamount to complicity in a theft.
This could have been an opportunity: It took someone elses time (=money) to acquire that nephrology office as a customer. It took your employer time/money to train you. Surely your initial reaction must have at least slightly been that there was something wrong with this picture. You should have said, hmmmm, its sounds interesting but can I have a week to think it over? Then you could have used this as an opportunity to educate or remind this customer about what they are getting for their fees to the transcription service: You could have taken that week to gather some examples of dictation errors that were caught by you and your co-workers on their particular account, especially those of a risk management nature (thereby potentially saving their butts from lawsuits = $$$). You might have asked around if anyone had any funny blooper type words or phrases on the nephrology account, & demonstrated how the company you work for was conscientious enough to reword these, possibly avoiding embarrassment to the doctors these were dictated by. You could have visited AAMT's website listing the MT job description and picked out some factoids the average doctor office business manager would not know about the skill level of MTs capable of transcribing nephrology dictation. If your company and/or co-workers were involved in continuing education (which you pretty much have to be), you could have calculated the approximate total number of hours per year you and your co-workers spend on continuing education, resulting in the quality of the work they were receiving, and that this was included at no extra cost to them. This could have been printed up all fancy & presented to them by yourself or someone at the company you work for, and they could have walked away reassured and happy how much money they are saving by staying with the current service. If after all that, they went and pulled the same stunt with another MT, and your company lost the account and the MT, the company should have just said good riddance. Oh wait, I guess that is partly what happened!
Theft $400 and above is a felony in most places
Did you call the police where they live/where you sent the equipment? Threaten them with it in email (go to readnotify.com and sign up for the trial and you can see if and when they open your email). After that, do it. Call the police and file charges. That is BS and they need to pay the consequences.
Cherrypicking - such a cute description for theft.
cc
You will think otherwise if your identity ever gets stolen..sm
good luck to you.
I saw a special about theft in the post office years ago. SM
This isn't saying they all do it, but luggage handlers and post office employees have a high rate of left. I bought a really cool Video Now XP for my granddaughter. The tracking information says it reached my local post office and they scanned it in there. They say they never saw it even though they scanned it in. Someone there has a really nice present for someone this year and they didn't pay for it either. Disgusting.
not *identity* - much more severe problem...nm *S*
x
If anyone steals my identity, the joke's on them!
Destitution has its benefits!
I think it's an expander identity thing, LOL.
It's become your dual personality.
They might if they realized with SS# on medical records, identify theft could happen. nm
x
do reveal OP's true identity. I received
 an email and would like to know who I may be conversing with.
don't post your name or the company you work for, no one will know your identity. SM
why did you even bother to reply so negatively. If it bothers you to answer this poll, than ignore the post. Negativity is so unattractive.
that's pretty funny considering we don't even have our own identity code with IRS! nm
;
all your information needed to steal your identity - sm
name, address, telephone and past employers etc. Now in Pakistan
And you're willing to just accept that? Ever had your identity stolen? I have. It's no treat.
the police have made a report but whoopee, that's not getting my credit back on track. Talk about stress and grief. No one ever cares until it happens to them. What a shame.
That happened to me, too.
I tried two different nationals and was bounced around from account to account on both of them. One account would run out of work, the equipment would go down, or they needed help on another account. Each account had pools of 100-500 doctors, so it was just ridiculous. I couldn't use my expander hardly at all. I couldn't make decent line counts because I could barely keep the account specs straight. Then they'd dump me off QA in less than a week and start me on another account.
That's when I made the decision to either get out of MT entirely or only do it on my terms. I'm working to make as much money as I can in as little time possible. I'm not here to be a goody, goody, "go to" Girl Scout saving the supervisors' butts from staffing problems and elapsed TAT. They didn't offer incentive or differential for taking on over and above. Why should my paycheck suffer because they under or overstaff?
Anyway, I found my fit. They scratch my back, so I'm very willing to scratch their backs.
what happened with them?
Curious.
has this happened to you?
I just started at a hospital, hospital work is new to me, but they're giving me a week to get my line count up to 160 lines an hour. I've been there 60 days. My question is what company is good that trains you on-line that will help place you also with a company on-line. I just need help learning hospital reports. I've been typing clinic for 7 years. I think I'll lose this job. I can't believe it! Thanks for your help.
has this happened to you?
Thanks for your encouragement. I have a week left before they decide if they're keeping me. My insurance starts on the 1st of August. I've never gotten on my knees and pleaded for my job before but at the cost of insurance these days, I'll make sure I'm wearing long pants that day!
That's sad and I'm sorry that it happened.
It is a shame when parents cannot try to teach their children right and wrong in a way that is not harmful to them without fear of having the "book thrown at you" and being suspected of, or worse yet, accused of child abuse. There are so many children now who are abused and yet the abusers get away with it on some insane technicality. Why can't the system go after them and leave a mother alone who is simply trying to teach her child not to use profanities and vulgarities?
I also wish this had never happened, as I was
really looking forward to working for TransTech. They have a lot to offer and Debbie Hood is a great trainer and would probably make an excellent supervisor. However, tech support is a very important aspect of a company to me, as they literally hold your paycheck in their hands when you are experiencing technical problems. I am certain the problem here was that I chose to use my own computer rather than the company computer and this caused more work/problems for the tech. Had I used their computer, I would be working for them right now. When the foot pedal they sent did not work, he instructed me to call dictaphone for assistance, rather than trying to work on the problem himself. A question for you, Dano -- Do you use TransTech's computer or your own?
That's what happened here with (sm)
Camille, too, a group throwing a "hurricane party." They all died when the apartment complex blew away.
No, actually what happened was
the hook that her MQ chapstick was on got attached to the lawchair. She had it on her back pocket.
Never happened to me before
in my many years here. In August we always counted on the work slowing down a little bit as that seems to be the vacation month for much of my account - but - we never had the company do a big hire just before this occurred in July as was done to us this year. July is when our doctors generally tried to catch up before going away and bombared us with work, so if it ran a tad out of TAT (to use the current phrase for it), it didn't matter to anyone client or management. It was called being reasonable and practical.
Sorry that happened to you. :( But
they need the reports in the charts. Were you hired to be "trained" or to work?
Feedback is great, it's how we all learn. But that's not the purpose of having you there - the purpose is to get the work done.
I promise, having been on both sides of the fence, MTSO and client, that it was not one bad report that got you tossed. It was enough of them that they couldn't have it happen again - and it may not have all been your reports, remember.
Again, sorry this happened to you, but yes, it IS your fault, not that you could help it. I'm sure you did the best work you could, with your limited experience. Chin up, there are other places out there. Just learn from what happened.
Happened to me.
I took a pregnancy test and it said negitive. I took one a week later and there was a very light line (almost invisable). I went to the clinic and got a test there, which was positive. I would definatly go to your doctor and get a test.
What happened to me...sm
I thought I had the flu...had only been off BC for 2 months after doc told me it could take a year to become pregnant and we wanted kids sooner rather than later and it was flu season and it was a hard one that year. Thought nothing of it but it got worse and worse and everyone got over it but me after a couple of weeks. My now hubby suggested being preggers, I laughed as were planning our wedding. After 2 more weeks of being sick did a test, negative..after another week went to the doc and nope, not preggers...another week passes, another test done by them and suddenly I am almost 6 weeks pregnant. I left that office in such shock you could not beleive it! The chalked it up to first pregnancy and it just took me longer to build up enough hormone to test positive and in the middle of flu season, being that sick really didn't mean much at all when your periods were never all that regular to begin with. Soooo, you could be or might not be. See a doc, if their test is negative and still have doubts a week later, go back for a blood test.
oh yes it happened to me...
1st 3 tests neg and the last 4 positive. I had been on depo shots for about 7-8 yrs and they said that it would take at least 2-3 months before I might start to ovulate, If I'm lucky. I wasn't having periods but I knew something was up. the only symptom I had was severe sensitivity to smells. I had to leave the video store because of someones perfume. went straight to the store and bought tests and they were negative. (took 1 that night, then again 2 weeks later, then 1 wk later) all 3 neg but I still felt like something wasn't right, but like you said, you start to think you're crazy. a while after that I was going to a party and thought "what the he**, just to be superduper safe before drinking, try again". bamm - positive. I was in shock so I took another, and another. I was just over 3 months pregnant. the tests were all from the same box (I bought the most you can get expecting to have fertility problems from being on the shot so long).... the doc office couldn't explain first how I got so lucky considering my history and second why it took so long for the hormones to show up. wait a while and take another!
If it really happened she would have said something.
She can't prove anything so why bother? It never happened.
Happened to me.... sm
and I definitely lost 50% of my work to EMR. Also, they will be adding VR to this system in 6 months, which reduces my serve to just editing. What they want to pay for editing, I can go to work at McDonald's and make more an hour....
Here is how it happened for me.
I sent out flyers and brochures with business cards. I did not really have a lot of luck with that. What finally landed me my first client was just by calling local MD offices. I got a lot of "No we don't need a transcriptionist" before I actually got someone who told me that their office did not need one, but they knew of an office who did. I would start by calling your own family doctor and asking them. If not luck there, just pick up the yellow pages and call. As far as the system, a lot of local offices still use tapes and that may be a good way to start on your own. Does not require a huge investment on your part, other than a transcribing unit, which you can usually buy at a local office supply store, such as Staples. Good luck to you. It is difficult getting started, but once you land one client, and if that clients likes your work, word gets around fast. I started with one client and 3 years later I have multiple accounts and now 8 transcriptionists working with me.
It happened to me . . .
I was really stupid and one year I didn't file. They really get you for that. I didn't hear anything from them for years and the penalites and interest just piled up. It took years but I'm finally done.
so sorry this happened to you
but there are other causes for pulmonary hypertension, and if phentermine caused pulmonary hypertension they would have taken it off the market just as they did Pondimin.
This happened to me.
He was able to look at my op note to confirm no nerves were cut. He said that they were stretched/damaged from the procedure and to give them time to heal. He said that since nerve cells grow so slowly, it could take up to a year for the feeling to return. I took several months, but I eventually got all my feeling back.
Same happened to me . . .
Same thing happened to me when I left an MT job after 10 years. The boss finally came up 15 minutes before I left and wished me well in a wooden tone. I figured they were angry because I had been there the longest, she counted on me a lot, I filled in when she wasn't there, and she had to train someone else. Plus . . . I was going home to work for an MTSO, and some of the other staff weren't too thrilled that I had this opportunity, so they didn't say much either. It was rather heartbreaking, but I soon got over it after I began working at home and loving it! I emphathize with you, though. It still does hurt, especially after all this time you have given. Maybe you will be pleasantly surprised before you leave! Gussie
That just happened with me....the doc was a bit PO'd but - sm
he will live and he redictated the reports (7 of them). Something happened at the office, a glitch or his people....either way they ended up deleting them from the recorder in an effort to reset the recorder as it was doing weird things. They kind of glossed over it with him but he made a few comments in his dictation to me, definitely was not happy. But that was the first time that had happened ever....most likely because the usual girl who sent me the work was on vacation and the sub had no idea what she was doing, not good. Next time she goes on vacation I hope she trains the girl really well!
Know someone this happened to.
sometimes the doc accidentally switches folders on the recorder and it's there, just didn't get downloaded.
Yes, this happened to me and...
I am still trying to get back on my feet! In December, my sole client (a psych hospital) all of a sudden stopped sending me work, right at Christmastime, without notice or anything. This really hurt me at first, emotionally and financially, of course. Then, I got angry because it was like a slap in my face--not to mention a HUGE chunk out of my income because they were the only client I had at that time.
Because of this, I'll NEVER, EVER commit to a full-time IC position. I'll work for two or three on a part-time basis. I can't afford to play games with my livelihood, as I am the sole provider for my child and myself.
One would think that professionals, such as docs, would have the decency to give us a "heads-up" should he decide to go elsewhere for services so that an MT can make preparations to replace that that source of income. In fact, there should be some sort of contractual agreement that states if a doc decides to opt out of using our services, he should at least give us notice ahead of time.
Good luck in retaining more work!
That happened to me at sm
Transolutions. I finally left after trying for a year. By the time they finished with me, I felt more than inadequate. Now I have a position with a company that gives feedback without all the nitpicky stuff and the degrading remarks and I feel good about myself again. You can only take so much from a mean QA person.
I'm so sorry this has happened to you
I've been in this business for almost 30 years. Some things have changed over the years, but one has remained the same: This profession attracts people with limited social skills who don't know how to communicate with others effectively.
I'm sure you weren't let go because of your age. That was a lame excuse he came up with to cover up the fact that he most likely owed a favor to someone and hired a friend of a friend as a favor and you had to go to make room for him/her.
It happens all the time, unfortunately. When you work a solitary job, live a solitary existence, and are clearly uncomfortable taking the bull by the horns and facing someone in person (thus having your replacement fire you instead of doing it himself) that's what happens. Cowards and social outcasts make up 99% of this profession - nature of the beast.
what happened to being able to
email other posters? I see that option has been removed for some reason. Does anyone know what happened? 
they don't know what happened yet...sm
Sept. 11, 2006, 10:15AM
Anna Nicole Smith's son, 20, dies in Bahamas
By JESSICA ROBERTSON
Associated Press
NASSAU, Bahamas -- The 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith has been found dead in the Bahamas, where the former reality TV star and Playboy playmate gave birth to a baby girl days earlier.
Authorities had not determined what caused the death of Daniel Smith, whose body was found Sunday morning, said Robin Bonnema, a spokeswoman for Trimspa, the diet products company that has been endorsed by Smith. Bonnema had no other details, and calls to Smith's lawyer, Howard K. Stern of Santa Monica, Calif., were not immediately returned.
A statement on Smith's Web site said the son died suddenly.
"We have yet to learn the cause of death but do not believe that drugs or alcohol were a factor," the statement said. "Anna Nicole is absolutely devastated by the loss of her son. He was her pride and joy and an amazing human being."
Walter Evans, a spokesman for the Royal Bahamian Police Force, would say only that the son of an undisclosed celebrity had been found in a room of the private Doctor's Hospital in Nassau.
Anna Nicole Smith, 38, gave birth to a healthy 6 pound, 9 ounce girl at the hospital on Thursday, her Web site said.
Her son had traveled to the Caribbean country "to share in the joy of his baby sister," the statement said. "Please do not make any press inquiries at this time so that Anna Nicole can grieve in peace."
Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year. Since then, she has feuded with Marshall's son, Pierce Marshall, over her entitlement to the tycoon's estate.
Bonnema said she did not know the name of Daniel Smith's father or that of the baby girl.
———
Associated Press writer Daisy Nguyen is Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Can't believe what just happened....sm
I returned, fortunately a small amount, of work to my doc's office by email, and it went to some company I've never heard of, not in my contacts, no where in my computer. The person who received it responded with a receipt and best I could do was ask her to delete it. Called the OM to tell them and she is checking into it. Has anyone ever had anything like this happen? Has to be some kind of internet hiccup but scares me it's going to cost me my job.
That happened to us once.
Got somebodies email with their address. Called the phone company, they did not know what had happened. Something with the server sometimes.
Wow, you won't believe what just happened to me....
After a sandwich for lunch I wanted something sweet but didn't want a big dessert or anything so I decided to just get a cinnamon hard candy. Well I must have taken in a breath as I was putting it in my mouth and it went straight down my throat. It was lodged in part way down. I could breath but was REALLY scared. I don't know what I was thinking but I tried to make myself throw up. OH MY what if it would have got stuck coming back up!!! Probably not a bright idea, but I wasn't thinking straight. Well the gagging must have made it go further down because the feeling isn't as bad and it feels further down, unless that is just a feeling from it going down. Right now I am just going to assume that it is still in there but further down. HOPING it will dissolve. Do you guys think if I drink hot tea or something like that it might help dissolve it quicker? I'm kind of afraid to drink anything (definitely won't eat anything for a while!!!). Anyone ever had this happen or heard of it happening to anyone???
It happened to me, also. sm
She said she had money problems herself being paid on time, but would take elaborate vacations, and even bought a beach house, all the while pushing our payday further and further off. When her checks started taking a week to clear at my bank, I got out. I work for three different companies as an IC, from large to small in size, and I have NEVER had that problem since. I loved my accounts with her, also, but one of these days your check isn't going to clear at all. That's the handwriting on the wall, so to speak.
Good luck.
happened here
Best thing is to take it to get cleaned - the longer you use it the more it spreads throughout you computer. I ha done that kept taking me places on line no matter what I was doing - only cost aboyt 100.00 for a cleaning - they have to "find" the folder your Spyware sat in - na dif it is new Norton won't help - because you got it before the fix - again best bet - get it cleaned - it does not affect anything on your computer except the spyware - unless you allow it to spread.
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