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Amid the flood of rising prices lately, here's one you might not have expected: the cost of tap water. 'Water used to be the cheapest bill you had,' says Barry [...]

Stealing a wallet, a cellphone, a car--these are threats we all understand. A thief grabs and flees. But in a rising form of fraud known as deed theft, criminals have [...]

TRICKBOT SCAMMERS BEHIND BARS In January, a 40-year-old Russian man was sentenced to more than five years in prison for his role in the so-called TrickBot cyberattack gang, a group [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton Smelling huge profits in targeting older Americans, organized gangs--the underworld syndicates that once focused on drug trafficking, gambling and other high-profile crimes--are increasingly entering the consumer fraud [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton When criminals steal from you, the pain is raw, immediate and personal. But in arguably the costliest fraud in America, crooks use you merely as a tool [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton On June 30, cellular phone users in the U.S. finally got help from the major phone carriers in the war on fraudulent phone calls. That day was [...]

Byline: Allan Roth, Lexi Pandell, Joe Eaton, Beth Braverman Countless books, TV shows and movies present invisibility as a superpower--a powerful gift that enables you to do as you please. [...]

CROOKS DO GET CAUGHT. HERE ARE A FEW WHO ARE IN PRISON FOR SCAMMING OLDER AMERICANS The Fake Goods Scammer Gareth David Long, 43, Las Vegas Long, a British citizen [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton AS CONSUMER FRAUD HAS surged in both quantity and variety, so have products and services to help protect you from scams. Some are free and come from [...]

Fraudulent Medicare billings were already a significant problem in pre-pandemic times, costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year by all estimates. Now, a rising tide of court cases [...]

Byline: Sari Harrar, Joe Eaton, Harris Meyer It's complicated. This phrase has become the default and arguably lazy response to many 21st-century challenges. But when it comes to finding ways [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton In Minnesota, aging in place isn't just a notion. Among the 48,500 people whose long-term care is paid for by Medicaid, more than 70 percent receive a [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton To understand who or what is to blame for the more than 94,000 deaths caused by the coronavirus among residents and staff of U.S. long-term care facilities [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton As COVID-19 ravaged the U.S. this spring, many of the nation's 15,600 nursing homes were the most dangerous places to be. In the early months of the [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton BIKE-SHARE programs, rental electric scooters and people lost in their smartphones have added even more chaos to sidewalks. What's a walker to do? Experts suggest some new [...]

Fueled by fear and deceptive marketing, older Americans lose millions through coin scams. What's behind the allure of gold? THEY WERE HEAVY--a single coin weighed about as much as a [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton WHEN A TRAFFIC light turns yellow, do you hit the brake or the gas? National guidelines for stoplight timing say that yellow lights should last about three [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton Older Americans have been more likely than other age groups to return their U.S. census forms and make sure they were counted. But as the country gears [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton Leah Lally, a 51-year-old homeowner in Tampa, Fla., learned the hard way that dealing with a homeowners association (HOA) can escalate into a costly and years-long legal [...]

Byline: Joe EatonThis past summer, Teresa Secrest left Orange County, Calif., to move into a small beach cottage in Mexico Beach, Fla., that she had inherited from her father. Like [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer THE CASE: AGENT CERON vs. HOLLYWOOD PAVILION THE CRIME: USING FAKE PATIENTS TO RAKE IN CASH Hollywood Pavilion sounds like the type of [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer AARP is involved in the fight against Medicare fraud and other schemes that target your health care. 'We are working with Congress and [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer In an exclusive interview, the nation's top law enforcement officer answered AARP's questions about Medicare fraud and other scams affecting older Americans. Here [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer The amount of tax dollars that are lost each year to Medicare fraud and waste is greater than the entire annual budget of [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer SCAMMERS HAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO BILK THE SYSTEM: * Charge for services never delivered * Falsify records * Inflate claims * Steal [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer THE CASE: AGENT KILPATRICK vs. ELBEBLAWY THE CRIME: SEVEN YEARS OF FALSE BILLING The convicted health care thief wanted to cut a deal. [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer Salomon Melgen, a South Florida eye doctor, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in February for stealing $73 million from Medicare. The [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer Protect yourself by following a few rules: REVIEW your Medicare Explanation of Benefits statements. Verify that each of the items on your statement [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer THE CASE: 'RANDALL' vs. THE RECRUITERS THE CRIME: PAYING THE NEEDY TO CHEAT HEALTH CARE Life in a Washington, D.C., homeless shelter is [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer Medicare numbers are worth more on the black market than credit card numbers,' says Michael Cohen of the Office of Inspector General at [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer Inside the billions of bits of data that accompany Medicare claims each year are small anomalies that suggest to experienced investigators that a [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton, John Rosengren, Sid Kirchheimer ---> Medical identity theft happens directly to you when someone steals your personal information, especially a Medicare number, to get devices, treatment or [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton A car accident in 2001 began a yearslong cycle of despair for Laura Thompson, who fell deep into addiction to pain pills and then had to battle [...]

Byline: Joe Eaton Over a span of about two years, Ajellon Dedeaux, a 29-year-old drug dealer, sold thousands of prescription painkillers on the illicit drug market near Sacramento, Calif. Finding [...]