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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Secret Service, FBI and Postal Inspection Service are investigating several recently reported cases of thieves trying to steal Medicare beneficiaries' identities as part of a tax fraud scheme.
Personal information, including Social Security numbers, is being used to file fake tax claims and illegally cash in on refunds.
Priority Health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are dedicated to protecting you and your personal information. CMS doesn't allow us to store Social Security numbers in our system and we have not received any reports of this type of identity theft among our members. However, we want to make sure you understand how thieves get your information and how to protect yourself.
Thieves can get personal information, such as your name, Social Security number, address and date of birth, from employers, school, hospitals and prisons. They rummage through trash, monitor unsecured Internet sites you use at work or home and often pose as someone who needs information from you. This information is then used to file a fraudulent tax claim. If a refund is due it's loaded onto a Green Dot Card, which is a prepaid MasterCard or Visa debit card. Victims may not be aware of the scam until they're rejected when they try to file their taxes.
Be careful about sharing your Social Security number, even when you're asked for it. If you think someone is using your Social Security number, contact the Social Security Administration toll-free at 800 772-1213. If you think someone is using your identity to commit tax fraud contact the IRS Identity Protection Unit by calling 800 908-4490.
You can find more information about how to protect yourself from identify theft at the Social Security website: www.ssa.gov/pubs/10064.html.
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