Health Information Compliance Alert
Be On the Lookout for This Sinister Scam
You have every reason to worry that your patients could be tricked into divulging their information to ID thieves. A new hoax-called "pharming" could be extremely damaging to your patients' identities. Pharming kicks the concept of phishing up a notch. Phishing: Your patients are sent an e-mail with an embedded link that appears to be from your organization. When users click on the link, they are sent to a crook's Web site instead. The difference: A pharming scam asks your patients to click on a URL that is an exact match to your institution's URL, says Donna McIntire, product marketing manager with Postini Email Solutions in Austin, TX. Problem: The false site is exactly the same as your site with one crucial exception: When patients log on to your site, a "key" or "lock" symbol is viewable that indicates a secure session. "If you go to the criminal's Web site, that's not the case," McIntire notes. The bottom line: You can help your patients avoid this scam by advising them to always search for the secure session indicator. And, remind them that if they aren't sure about whether an e-mail is legitimate, they should pick up the phone and investigate. Editor's note: Don't wait for a patient or employee to bring a pharming attempt to your attention. Alert them now so that they can spot and squash crooks' attempts to hi-jack confidential information.
Health Information Compliance Alert
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