Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez pushed back Thursday against claims leveled a day earlier by Vice President JD Vance that the state isn’t serious about combating Medicaid fraud.
“Hawaii has not ignored Medicaid fraud,” Lopez said in a statement, suggesting that Vance presented an unfair assessment of results achieved recently by the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit under the state Department of the Attorney General. The unit is largely funded by the federal
government.
Vance, who chairs an anti-fraud task force that President Donald Trump formed in March, said Wednesday during a White House news conference that Hawaii’s MFCU produced no Medicaid fraud indictments or convictions over the past few years because program administrators don’t take it seriously.
“They don’t think that fraud is a big enough problem,” he said. “They don’t care about protecting resources, and they don’t…
This remains the most prevalent form of financial crime globally. It targets the direct access points to your money: your cards and your bank accounts.
- Skimming: Criminals use small devices called “skimmers” placed over ATM or point-of-sale card slots to capture the data from your card’s magnetic strip.
- Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud: This occurs during online shopping where a physical card isn’t required. Thieves use stolen card numbers, expiry dates, and CVV codes to make unauthorized purchases.
- Account Takeover (ATO): A hacker gains access to your online banking credentials (often through malware or phishing) and changes the contact details or passwords, locking you out while they drain your funds.