A nurse from Anaheim passed envelopes of cash — $600 every month — to an elderly couple enrolled in hospice services they did not need.
A husband and wife in Covina used fake hospice billings to cover mortgage and car payments, international flights, and other personal bills. Twenty-two of their patients did not have terminal illnesses, investigators found.
A 76-year-old woman, already awaiting trial for hospice fraud, operated three fraudulent facilities in secret while out on bond. She’s since been convicted thrice and is serving time in a federal prison. Her husband, whose name was used to conceal her involvement, is now facing charges as well.
All were nabbed under “Operation Never Say Die,” a new crackdown on hospice and health care fraud in California and Los Angeles County by the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and other federal…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.