Identity Resolution Daily

By the Infoglide Software Team

CNN: Lottery officials: Rightful winners of ‘03 jackpot getting paid

“The buyer redeemed the ticket later at the outlet in Burlington and wasn’t told that he won a free ticket, investigators determined, according to the CBC. That ticket went on to win a $12.5 million jackpot. It was claimed by Kathleen Chung, sister and daughter of men who worked at the outlet.”

O’Reilly Radar: Will data warehousing survive the advent of big data?

“The current hype around ‘big data‘ has caused some analysts and vendors to declare the death of data warehousing, and in some cases, the demise even of the relational database. A prerequisite to discussing these claims is to understand and clearly define the term ‘big data.’ However, it’s a fairly nebulous concept.”

Healthlaw Insights: Whistleblower Suits are Rewarding and So is Fraud Recovery

“In addition, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has been extended to seven cities. Using advanced data analysis techniques to identify high billing levels in healthcare fraud hot spots, the interagency teams can target emerging or migrating schemes along with chronic fraud by criminals masquerading as healthcare providers or suppliers.”

ClaimsJournal.com: Florida Businessman Charged with Workers’ Compensation Fraud

“Florida CFO Jeff Atwater announced the arrest of David Rodriguez-Socarras, who officials allege used a ’shell’ company and fictitious name in order to cash nearly $3 million in payroll checks through a money service business to avoid workers’ compensation premiums and payroll taxes.”

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[Post from Infoglide] You Can’t Handle the Truth

“We have a new Congress and a new House majority leader as of this week’s swearing in ceremony. The current House majority party (R) plans to pass a bill to repeal the ‘Obamacare’ bill passed during the last session by the former House majority party (D).  Both parties make ‘fact based’ arguments about why killing or keeping the bill will reduce the deficit, yet both can’t be right. This isn’t a political blog, and I’m not going to take a side on this issue. What struck me is how often we use ‘facts’ to bolster our argument, with ‘facts’ defined as any real data that can be massaged or misinterpreted to suggest that our desired outcome appears to be the best one.”

The Washington Post: The Navigator: Does Secure Flight program mean more money for the airlines?

“When she arrived at the screening area, her husband’s incorrect name had already been checked against a list of potential security threats and had passed. Once passengers receive their boarding passes, the Secure Flight process is already complete, according to the TSA.”

LinkedIn: Data Quality of Gender / Sex Codes and the Impacts on Identity Data Matching

“Identity matching requires matching practitioners to decide which collection of fields best allows the correct matching of one record with another. The choice can be made from fields such as name, date of birth, address details, sex / gender, and even unique identifier values (when they exist). The use of sex / gender in that process might be seen in a slightly different light.”

nj.com: Bill would allow people to buy New Jersey Lottery tickets electronically

“Under the bill, the commission would establish procedures for the payment of winning tickets holders, which may include crediting amounts won to a player’s account or direct deposit into a player’s account at a financial institution… The commission would also be directed to ensure that the program includes security measures to protect against fraud, prevent wagering by underage persons and protect the personal and financial information of players.”

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[Post from Infoglide] The Word is (Finally) Getting Out

“Immediately after the Christmas bomber incident in 2009, we highlighted the positive role that broader deployment of (id)entity resolution software could play in preventing terrorist actions. That thought was seconded this week in a piece published by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) entitled ‘Better data analysis for a safer world’…”

NaturalNews.com: Louisiana sues Big Pharma for Medicaid fraud

“According to the same official statement, Louisiana doled out more than $850 million in taxpayer funds to drug companies to pay for drugs between 1991 and 2009. But a significant portion of this amount was most likely fraudulent because of the billing scheme drug companies utilize to get reimbursed. The way it works is drug companies report what are called the Average Wholesale Prices (AWPs) for drugs, and are subsequently reimbursed by state Medicaid programs for these amounts. But the lawsuit alleges that drug companies were marking up these costs as high as 6000 percent above actual costs.”

The Globe and Mail: Membership cards touted as solution to lottery fraud

“Last month a father and son who worked at Burlington store were charged, along with another family member, with stealing a $12.5-million Super 7 jackpot in 2003. The case has not yet come to trial. Mr. Vikoren said that for membership cards to ensure consumer protection, people need to keep their card safe.”

ChrisAroundTheWorld.com: TSA Airport Security: Is it time for a Trusted Traveler biometric program?

“But the whole thing made me think about whether the TSA could institute a ‘trusted traveler’ program that allows vetted frequent flyers easier access through security. It’s an idea supported by the U.S. Travel Association. The organization, which promotes the interests of the travel industry, has called upon the government to consider such a measure, especially because the Department of Homeland Security is already working with airlines and online reservation systems on Secure Flight, where manifests of  domestic and inbound passengers are checked against government watch lists.”

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By Mike Betron, Infoglide Software Director of Marketing

Immediately after the Christmas bomber incident in 2009, we highlighted the positive role that broader deployment of (id)entity resolution software could play in preventing terrorist actions. That thought was seconded this week in a piece published by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) entitled “Better data analysis for a safer world”:

The technology to connect the dots from disparate data sources already exists, and has done for quite some time. It’s called “entity resolution,” and corporations have been using it for years to compile and ensure accuracy in consumer data. Entity resolution can help avoid many of the mistakes that led to the attempted Christmas bombing: it can overcome spelling errors in databases, alert the right people to a threat in real time, and correlate literally billions of records on an ongoing basis.

As we pointed out 11 months ago, not all identity resolution software has the same capabilities:

… some technologies rely on strategies that actually destroy the forensic integrity of the data. Not all identity resolution technologies are the same. Ours can be configured using a number of strategies to fit particular customer performance requirements, sensitivity to false positives or false negatives, and Similarity Search behaviors, including specialized name algorithms that catch misspellings, nicknames, and ordering variations.

The CBC article suggests how expanding the current uses of entity resolution software could bring added benefits:

If the agencies that held these disparate pieces of information were connected and running entity resolution software, red flags would be raised automatically, and those warnings quickly transmitted to the people who make decisions. The same level of intelligent technology and data analysis is important in business, where entity resolution originated.

That last statement supports our January post where we mentioned other uses for the technology:

Although the consequences are grimmer in homeland security situations, the challenges are the same for financial, healthcare, gaming, state and local government, and marketing applications.

The CBC article delineates how businesses benefit from entity resolution:

Knowing who your customers are, where they live, and what they are interested in gives your business a serious advantage - but for large organizations, that requires processing massive amounts of information. The potential for inaccuracies, duplication, and mistaken identity means that companies may be led into poor decisions by misrepresentative data. Entity resolution software was developed to mitigate these risks, and automatically format and clean up the available information.

CEO Mike Shultz has pointed out that our specific technology is “used more times every day for terrorist matching” than any other entity resolution software. Thankfully, the worlds of both business and government seem to be getting the message about the critical importance of this technology.

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By the Infoglide Staff

Ottawa Sun: Gang boss gets HSBC credit card for false alias

“Federal laws require banks to know who exactly they’re doing business with - identification checks are mandatory - and they must gather details of clients’ backgrounds and lives. Failure to comply with those regulations can lead to administrative and criminal charges. Banks and other businesses that handle cash also are required to report suspicious transactions involving their clients to a federal anti-money laundering agency, FINTRAC. Reporting failures can also lead to administrative penalties and criminal charges.”

Pharmalot: Healthcare Fraud, Whistleblowers & US Treasury

“Specifically, there were 145 FCA cases settled in the 2010 fiscal year and the 10 largest settlements involved health care fraud, with eight involving drugmakers, according to Taxpayers Against Fraud, a non-profit that supports whistleblower lawsuits. The 10 largest cases accounted for $2.7 billion recovered. Although fiscal year 2009 actually recovered a larger pot of money - $5.6 billion.”

Rob Karel’s Blog: Software AG buys Data Foundations: Business Acumen Meets Data Competency

“It’s no longer too scandalous or surprising to admit that technology- or IT-centric MDM strategies just don’t work.  Building a single version of truth of master data in a central hub somewhere doesn’t directly solve any business problems. The only way master data can reduce risks, improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs, increase revenue or strategically differentiate an organization is by figuring out how to connect and synchronize that master data into the business processes and decisions most important to an organization’s success.”

ctv.ca: Search continues for true stolen lotto prize winner

“Police believe the real winner is a frequent player who purchased the ticket at a favourite store in St. Catharines in 2003, then had it checked at a Burlington store. Back at that time, there was no scanner allowing players to have their tickets checked automatically. They had to trust the clerk. Police have alleged the store’s operators lied to the customer and passed the winning ticket to a female relative to cash in.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Commercial Fusion Centers

“Several years ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published guidelines for creating fusion centers at the state, local, and federal levels. Since then, fusion centers have become a hot trend in the law enforcement community… If governmental agencies with common concerns can band together to create fusion centers, it seems possible that private companies with common goals could use technologies such as identity resolution to achieve them.”

Wisconsin Radio Network: Compliance check nets lottery liars

“According to a release (PDF)  from the office of Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, 36 year-old Tyna Dull of Arena was charged in Iowa County Circuit Court, and 28 year-old Travis Ferguson of Gotham was charged in Richland County Circuit Court, each with one count each of Attempted Theft By Fraud. Dull and Fergison told Special Agent from the state Division of Criminal Investigation that the Lottery tickets presented by the agents as part of a Lottery compliance check, were not winning tickets.”

DBJ: Healthcare Quarterly: Hospitals’ road to EMRs costly

“Texas Health started installing its electronic medical records system four years ago and expects to spend more than $200 million by 2012 in capital and operating expenses to put the system in place, said Edward Marx, chief information officer. The hospital system expects to receive about $70 million in federal stimulus money over five years, beginning in early 2011, Velasco said. Patients are already experiencing the benefits of digitized records in Texas Health Resources hospitals, because the records are accessible to the appropriate care-giving team regardless of where the patient is moved in the hospital, Velasco said.”

NBCDFW: New Security Check Could Delay Air Travelers

 ”The program, called ‘Secure Flight,’ was first implemented in August 2009. The government has given airlines more than a year to comply. The names will be checked with a federal database of terrorism suspects. The TSA says the added information will prevent many passengers from being misidentified as a potential terrorist. ‘Worst case scenario, if the person doesn’t have this information, they’ll be redirected back to the ticket counter to provide the information so they can get the boarding pass,’ TSA spokesman Luis Casanova said.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Preventable Nightmares?

“Every father’s nightmare happened in North Carolina this week. A young woman apparently left a bar voluntarily with a man she met there, and she was subsequently found murdered. The apparent murderer arrested in Niagara Falls had a criminal record that included sexual abuse and was on probation in North Carolina. Could this tragedy have been prevented?”

mydesert.com: Palm Desert store the good guys in lottery fraud investigation

“In the sting, investigators presented lottery retailers with winning lottery tickets for large dollar amounts and tested whether the retailer would properly inform them of their winnings. The Jensen’s on Cook Street was the only retailer who informed the undercover agent of his winnings.”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Airline passengers to face new security rules

“American spokesman Billy Sanez said that for tickets purchased before Sept. 15 for travel dates Nov. 1 and later, the Secure Flight data was requested but not required. The airline’s reservation system now requires the data for travel after Nov. 1. ‘Now, you won’t be able to get a ticket if you don’t give us that information,’ Sanez said. He said it must be provided no matter where the ticket is purchased: online, through a travel agency or at the airport.”

DOJ: Lowell Couple Pleads Guilty in Under-the-Table Payroll Scheme

“The defendants concealed the true size of their payroll from the IRS, and from their workers compensation insurer, in order to reduce their employer payroll taxes (FICA) and their workers compensation insurance payments. They did this by paying their employees in cash each week and hiding any record of the payments. Even though they retained a payroll service, they routinely told the service that C&A had no work and therefore no employees. Relying on this misrepresentation, the payroll service filed over 20 quarterly payroll tax returns on behalf of C&A that reported no payroll.”

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By the Infoglide Team

NY Post: Deli clerk tried to scam Lotto winner out of $14M

“McCassell gave the ticket to a clerk — but when the clerk scanned it, he ‘told him that it wasn’t a big winner,’ New York Lottery Director Gordon Medenica said. When McCassell asked for the ticket back, the clerk told him ‘he had lost the ticket,’ Medenica said. ‘The clerk said, ‘I already threw it away.””

CivSource: New report urges state and local governments to be strategic about analytics tools

“‘State government cannot afford redundant and disconnected investment — even in the best of times. And right now, we’re in the worst of times,’ he said in a statement. According to the INPUT report, released earlier this year, the market for state and local BI / audit and recovery (A&R) technologies will increase at an annual growth rate of 7.6 percent, topping out at over a billion dollars in 2014. Cumulatively, INPUT believes states will invest $600 million in A&R solutions, and $225 million in BI and prevention solutions in 2010 for the five biggest federal benefits programs.”

MassDevice: Clinical Science coughs up $525,000 to settle Medicaid fraud allegations

“‘We will continue to work with our state and federal partners to police abuse of the program that so many people depend on,’ Coakley said in prepared remarks. Over the last three years, Coakley’s Medicaid fraud division has recovered approximately $125 million for the state Medicaid program, according to the AG’s office.”

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By the Infoglide Team

All247News.com: Medicare Fraud: Updates on Government’s Efforts to Recover Money Lost to Scam Artists

“Medicare fraud and billing errors costs the government more than $36 billion last year, the Economist noted. The modus operandi involves a “care-provider” billing Medicare for non-existent or unnecessary services. These services and items include: HIV/AIDS medicines and therapy; medical equipment such as wheelchairs to neck and knee braces, as well as home health care, physical and occupational therapy and mental-health services.”

CBCnews: Crime proceeds crackdown looms

“Another method used by organized crime is to pay a 10 per cent premium for winning lottery tickets or to buy jewelry in Canada worth tens of thousands of dollars and sell it in the U.S., achieving money laundering and foreign exchange conversion at the same time.”

San Antonio Express-News: Police ‘fusion center’ on the way for S.A.

“Each center can have an individual purpose, McManus said. The South Texas center will have two branches: one working on homeland security, bolstered by a new San Antonio Police Department Terrorism Criminal Intelligence Division, the other a 24-hour tactical operations center for ‘all crimes and all hazards as they occur in San Antonio and the region.’”

Washington State Wire: Will a ‘September Surprise’ Derail Workers’ Comp Initiative?

“Schurke said a fraud-prevention effort launched in 2005 has increased collections dramatically. Collections due to L&I investigations have increased 40 percent, to $770 million. The department has invested in advanced computer technology that should make it easier to track down employers who are not reporting fully. The systems will make it possible to compare 20 state and federal databases, including the IRS.”

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By the Infoglide Team

wkyc.com: Ravenna: Police arrest store owner in Ohio Lottery claim investigation

“Lottery officials say the Lottery’s Office of Security is a statewide program developed by the Lottery and executed in cooperation with local law enforcement authorities. It is designed to protect Lottery customers by ensuring that winning tickets are not wrongfully claimed by retailers or their employees without payment to the customers. The program, a sting operation in which Lottery investigators posing as customers present tickets to be checked, is ongoing and is expected to yield additional arrests.”

insurancenewsnet.com: California Announces $29.8 Million in Fraud-Fighting Grants

“U.S. property/casualty insurer financial impairments have more than tripled since 2007, the last full year before the current recession, rising to 18 in 2009, up from 16 in 2008 and from five in 2007, according to a recent A.M. Best special report (BestWire, June 22, 2010). A.M. Best has found over the past 41 years of this study that the financial impairment frequency typically rises during and shortly after periods of economic and financial market stress.”

InvestmentNews: Who’s supposed to watch what?

“Updated anti-money-laundering regulations, pending trade-reporting rules and new custody rules for advisers are some of the initiatives that are raising questions about the division of compliance responsibilities. ‘Some of those lines [of responsibility have] blurred as regulators focus on anti-money-laundering,’ said Jeff Horowitz, director of compliance at Pershing. ‘Anti-money-laundering has morphed into anything to do with fraud, manipulation or low-priced securities.’”

iContactCommunity: Workers Compensation Budget Impact

“A recent article written by IAIABC Executive Director Greg Krohm does a great job of analyzing the effects that the Patient Protect and Affordable Health Care Act of 2010 (aka Obamacare) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are expected to have on the cost and administration of workers’ compensation programs.”

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