The government knows.  It always knows.  The Social Security Administration has a whole file dedicated to it.  Maybe a little creepy to think about, but be glad this file exists.  For one, if you die and someone pretends to be you, it’s a lot easier to pin down and prosecute for your children’s posterity, so they don’t lose their inheritance. 

It also conveniently works for you while you’re alive, if you run a business. There’s a type of criminal out there that focuses purely on this kind of fraud, called “deceased person identity theft.”  And you could easily be a victim if you don’t have the records to screen for it. 

One of our favorite Web Services, the Death Index API taps right into that SSA file and runs names and Social Security Numbers of your customers and patients against it in real time.  So you can say to the fake customer standing in front of you at the counter, “Wow, you’re looking pretty good for a dead guy!”

Now that Thanksgiving has passed and increased Black Friday sales are showing hope for the economy – especially for retailers and e-commerce sites this holiday season - it may be time for these businesses to consider some of the biggest issues of high volume shopping: deliverability and consumer fraud/identity theft.

The good news is profits are up and we may just be rising out of this brutal recession.  The bad news is fraud and identity theft are also up – by approximately 22% (10 million victims). 

Take measures to protect yourself and your customers by instituting some form of verification process in your checkout interface. Credit card verifiers are always a good idea, but you can take it a step further and do what many medical establishments with online record access are doing to combat medical identity theft – plug in an address verification Web Service or an automatic reverse phone/address lookup to match customers with their information.  Some even use the Social Security Administration’s Death Index to make sure no one is using a deceased person’s identity to get health care – or buy a new coffee table.  

And as for deliverability, the post office provides a nifty little (or not so little) database of addresses that providers can certify to use. The certification is called CASS^(R), and rigorous tests must be passed to be able to provide this service.  When addresses are run through a CASS certified^(R) system/Web Service/software, they are standardized, validated, and appended with whatever they are missing (if possible). Deliverability is validated, rezoning issues are fixed, and suite numbers are appended whenever possible. This service increases the speed of your deliveries and decreases UAA (undeliverable as addressed) mail, making your customers much happier when they receive their packages on time.

Just something to consider in this chaotic season of giving and receiving. Think about what verification can do for your business.  And have a happy holiday season – in the black!

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Health care organizations have many issues to consider when choosing technology to streamline operations. HIPAA and the Red Flags Rule are just two of those issues. Privacy and protection from medical identity theft are high on the list of considerations for administrators, and many who are unfamiliar with Web technology may fear that security will suffer when using services over the Internet.  Actually, the opposite may be true.

Web services, especially those using XML, use the same open channels that intranets that operate within the organization do, so no security risks are present that are not already present in daily operations.  In addition, most Web services, including CDYNE’s, use 128 bit SSL encryption.  This level of encryption is security of the highest level and will protect patient information and insure against medical identity theft by hackers.

The services themselves are also instrumental in preventing identity theft and protecting patient information. CDYNE Web Services include 411 reverse lookups, for matching address and phone number to name and filling in gaps in patient and business records for billing as well as treatment, and Death Index, which runs patients through the Social Security Administration’s Death Index to reduced deceased person identity theft.  These two services alone are used by countless health care practices at point of entry to comply with government regulations, including the Red Flags Rule.

In addition to 411 and Death Index, CDYNE provides address and phone verification products as well as text and phone notification services for validating patients, reminding them of appointments, or notifying them of billing questions or payment dates. 

And the reporting functions on all the services can bet set up to automatically update the database and return reports based on whatever criteria the organization chooses. CDYNE’s fraud prevention Web Services are invaluable tools in the field of health care.  Protect your patients, your medical records, and your practice from fraud. contact us today at 1-800-984-3710 or visit www.cdyne.com for more information.

CDYNE Fraud Prevention Web Services as part of your anti-fraud program can help you meet the standards of the new government-mandated Red Flags Rule.

From the Federal Trade Commission’s Web site:

The Red Flags Rule, a law the FTC will begin to enforce on August 1, 2009, requires certain businesses and organizations — including many doctors’ offices, hospitals, and other health care providers — to develop a written program to spot the warning signs — or “red flags” — of identity theft. Is your practice covered by the Red Flags Rule? If so, have you developed your Identity Theft Prevention Program to detect, prevent, and minimize the damage that could result from identity theft?

How can CDYNE Web Services help you prevent identity theft?

CDYNE Fraud Prevention XML Web Services can be implemented into your system to flag bad addresses at point-of-entry, perform reverse lookups with phone numbers and addresses to match with names in your patients’ sign-in forms, and run records against the Social Security Administration’s Death Index to combat deceased person identity theft – all instantaneously at point of entry.

In order to comply with the Red Flags Rule, organizations covered by the rule must draft a plan to combat identity theft in their practices and outline specific actions that will be taken to reduce instances of patient fraud.  CDYNE Web Services are specifically designed to work automatically in real time to validate records as they are entered into patient management software, systems, Web site forms, and other applications.

CDYNE is already working with health organizations to provide the data verification necessary to meet Red Flags Rule requirements. Incorporate CDYNE’s Fraud Prevention services into your Identity Theft Prevention Program mandated by the FTC and be confident that you are employing the best methods to save your organization from violations and other consequences of medical identity theft.

Visit www.cdyne.com for more information on CDYNE Postal Address Verification, Demographics, and 411, plus other valuable Web services to help your organization save money and run more effficiently.  Or call 1-800-984-3710 to speak to one of our team members about CDYNE Web Services. 

To read the rest of the FTC’s article on the Red Flags Rule, click here.

According to the Kroll Global Fraud Report (2009), in the current economic climate, people who are used to a certain level of comfort – and credit – may resort to fraud to continue in the style to which they have become accustomed.

With layoffs at record highs and creditors vying to recover debts, people can’t continue to live as they have on borrowed money, maintaining expensive cars, large mortgages, and private school fees, among other commitments.

So what’s a business to do? You’re probably not gaining new customers as quickly as before the recession, so you have to make concessions. Maybe you’ve lowered prices. Maybe you extend credit to people you might not have before. Maybe you give people more time to pay or waive penalties. These are all acceptable methods of keeping business going in tough times.

But what happens when desperate people resort to fraud and identity theft and involve your business?

CDYNE XML Web Services can help. Our Fraud Prevention Services catch customer fraud at point of entry.

• You can validate a customer in milliseconds by postal address, email, phone number, or IP address.
• If you deliver your product, you can set up automatic phone calls to verify the person ordering is the person whose credit card is being entered.
• You can even run people’s information through the Social Security Administration’s Death Index to make sure a deceased person’s identity isn’t being stolen.

Check out www.cdyne.com to learn more about individual XML Web Services that can be programmed into your system to help you avoid fraud by verifying customers at lightning speeds.

The Kroll Global Fraud Report 2009 can be found at www.kroll.com.

Phone Notify! from CDYNE is an invaluable service useful in many very different industries – large and small organizations, nonprofits, privately and publicly held companies, universities, and more. Here are some of the innovative ways the service is used:

• It’s great for schools to keep in touch with parents about truancy, weather emergencies and other school closings, PTA meetings and school events, fundraisers, and more.
• Businesses can maintain adequate staffing by notifying employees of open shifts or shift changes and emergencies and contact customers with updates.
• Sports organizations can keep players informed of practice times, game schedules, and cancellations.
• Doctor’s offices use phone notification for appointment reminders and billing inquiries.
• Retail companies or other organizations using online registration or purchase forms can use the service to verify customers prior to acceptance.

Virtually any organization can use Phone Notify! to improve communications and stay informed. One of CDYNE’s current clients is the State of Ohio, which uses the service to keep the Police Department connected. Some communities use phone notification to send descriptions of police suspects to their citizens to improve public safety.

The possibilities are endless. What would you do with phone notification?

The best part? CDYNE’s Phone Notify! is an XML-based Web service that can be integrated with your contact database and can be programmed to automatically make calls and return reports. It’s also interactive, so contacts can respond with the push of a button. Record your own sound files or use text-to-speech. Save money on large volume calling equipment: phone lines, computers, servers, etc. 

And if you are not a programmer or don’t have access to one, you can still use the service in the form of cdynenotify.com, available entirely online. You can upload your sound files and lists and have the system make as many simultaneous calls as you like. Visit CDYNE.com for more information on Phone Notify! and other Web services.