How Your Hospital Bracelet Could Lead To Identity Theft
Depending on the state, province, or country you live in, you receive a paper (or plastic) hospital bracelet on your wrist whenever you are admitted into a medical facility. The bracelet is used to identify patients, but it also contains some personal info, such as name and birth date.
After getting discharged, most patients throw the bracelets in the garbage boxes outside their hospital. What usually happens is that drug addicts go through hospitals, pretend they are visitors, and look specifically for those bracelets in the garbage.
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Then they go to a medical clinic with a minor ailment and get a prescription for medicine. Next, they go home, use wipeout to delete their name, the medicine name, and the doctor’s signature. Then they photocopy the blank prescription form several times.
Addicts then write your name and hospitalization number on it and add the name of the drug they really want, e.g., Ritalin. They successfully present these prescriptions at several different drugstores, which can check the hospitalization number.
Here is also a list of several Medicare scams you should also be aware of.
Hospital Bracelet Band: How To Avoid The Scam
Always shred everything that has your personal information on it, including the insignificant-looking hospital bracelet band. Since we are exposing health-related fraud, beware of many Medicare scam calls that are going around.
How To Report Suspicious Activities
Warn your family and online friends about the hospital bracelet article by sharing it on social media. You can also officially report any suspicious activity to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) using the link below:
How To Protect Yourself More
If you want to be the first to find out the most prevalent scams every week, subscribe to the Scam Detector newsletter. This way, you’ll receive periodic messages and emails – we promise not to spam. Meanwhile, educate yourself with some other Medicare fraud-related articles below, so that you can protect yourself in many other niches. Last but not least, feel free to use the comments section below to expose other scammers.
Here are some must-reads for the end:
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Why do you specify drugs addicts? I know if many people who are not drug addicts who do similar crimes. And secondly, if these people weren’t doing this crime before, then they definitely are now, thanx to your very detailed description.????
Never lump humans into defined categories. Everyone is unique, and yes, some are bad, but some are not. And while your busy lumping everyone into categories, the ones you aren’t looking at are the ones that sneak up behind you and…..well…ya.
Another thing to consider with these hospital bracelets is that you can be in danger even when you DON’T take them off right away. Many of us wander out of the hospital or ER still groggy or a little bit sick, still wearing the bracelet, and then stop by the pharmacy or store on the way home. Because they have your name, birth date, and in some cases social security or insurance number on them, you’re basically wearing a sign that says "Here’s my personal info, scammers." All it would take would be for someone to approach you with an opening like like "Those look like some nasty bruises. The lab techs got you good, huh?" You lift your arm and start discussing your ER visit, and they’ve got a good look at your bracelet and all the info they need for a prescription fraud scam or even financial scams if your SSN is on the bracelet.
No matter how groggy or forgetful you might be, you should always remove and destroy the plastic bracelet before going out in public.