Friday, June 29, 2018
Here is a SCAM that anyone (in USA) could become the next victim. If you happen to go to emergency in an hospital , you can be charged with a “trauma fees”.Charges ranged from $1,112.00 at a hospital in Missouri to $50,659.00 at a hospital in California.
At San Francisco General Hospital, the $30,206 higher-level trauma response fee, which increased by about $2,000 last year, was approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Example:
The hospital charged Sulvetta a $15,666 trauma response fee, a hefty chunk of her $113,336 bill. Her insurance decided that the hospital fees for the one-day stay were too high, and — after negotiations — agreed to pay only a charge it deemed reasonable. The hospital then went after Sulvetta for $31,250.
Trauma centers argue that these fees are necessary to train and maintain a full roster of trauma doctors, from surgeons to anesthesiologists, keeping them on-call and able to respond to medical emergencies at all times.
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital spokesperson Brent Andrew defended the hospital’s fee of over $15,000, even though Jeong-whan didn’t require those services.
“We are the trauma center for a very large, very densely populated area. We deal with so many traumas in this city — car accidents, mass shootings, multiple vehicle collisions,” Andrew said. “It’s expensive to prepare for that.”
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/28/17506232/emergency-room-bill-fees-health-insurance-baby
If you get "vished" , your bank account might get "washed" (out) - Voice + Phishing = VISHING
A type of fraud that uses the telephone system and social engineering techniques to obtain private or confidential information from people — often financial information.
Vishing can be used to scam individual consumers or as part of more sophisticated attacks against organizations.
Many vishing calls begin with the scammer impersonating a bank employee, telling the victim that there’s been suspicious activity or another problem with his or her bank account. To resolve this issue, they’ll need to call a toll-free number and speak to a representative. This call will be directed to the scammer, who will take down the victim’s account information and later use it to transfer money out of the account. The scammers may persuade the victims themselves to transfer the funds
https://www.wombatsecurity.com/blog/vishing-attacks-whos-really-on-the-line
Thursday, June 28, 2018
If I avoid using the Web to manage various accounts tied to my personal and financial data then I will be safe - WRONG !!!
Scammers can create online accounts in someone’s name at the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Postal Service or the Social Security Administration
Kerskie said she recently had a client who had almost a quarter of a million dollars taken from his bank account precisely because he declined to link his bank account to an online identity
Plant your flag online or — as Kerskie puts it — “mark your territory” — before fraudsters do it for you.
The bad guy can your vendor/service provider, provide his personal details, and establish an online account,” Once they do that, they will be able to do anything.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/06/plant-your-flag-mark-your-territory/
You think your confidential info is collected and stored only by companies that you work with - You are wrong!!! - A company that you almost certainly never heard of ( exposed (2TB of) detailed personal information of 230 million consumers (you could be one of them) and 110 million business contacts.
Including phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth, estimated income, number of children, age and gender of children, education level, credit rating, interests and more.
In short, “pretty much every U.S. citizen” is included in the database.
Florida-based Exactis, a marketing and data aggregation firm that you almost certainly never heard of before the story made headlines courtesy of security researcher Vinny Troia.
Just ask Equifax, another company you probably never realised you had any relationship with, and yet knew an awful lot about you
https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-protection/hitherto-unknown-marketing-firm-exposed-hundreds-of-millions-of-americans-data/
Ever heard of "Privacy Intrusive Defaults"? (Hint, Facebook, Google , Microsoft) and "FREE SOFTWARE/SERVICE"
Facebook and Google have privacy intrusive defaults, where users who want the privacy friendly option have to go through a significantly longer process.
Before we cry wolf, we should remember there is no such thing as "free service" so, we have to trade something to get something "free"
The popups from Facebook, Google and Windows 10 have design, symbols and wording that nudge users away from the privacy friendly choices. Choices are worded to compel users to make certain choices, while key information is omitted or downplayed. None of them lets the user freely postpone decisions.
Also, Facebook and Google threaten users with loss of functionality or deletion of the user account if the user does not choose the privacy intrusive option.
Full Report Here:
https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-06-27-deceived-by-design-final.pdf
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