Identity Thief Parties in Vegas…
…on credit belonging to parents of sick child.
Marcus and Heather Oginsky’s son had surgery at The Children’s Hospital in Denver. Like good citizens, they paid their bill, not knowing the person taking their payment and thanking them had more personal reasons to be grateful.
The Oginsky’s credit card number paid for her vacation in Vegas. Aurora-based Revenue Enterprises , a third party billing provider, terminated her after they found out she had abused her position as a specialist working on the hospital’s account. Revenue Enterprises says the woman in question had passed their background check. Incredibly, she’ll pass her next one, too!
No charges pressed.
The Excalibur Hotel where she stayed is declining to press charges, finding it simpler to just write off the loss and refund the Oginskys their money. The Denver police told the Marcus and Heather that without the hotel to press charges, they were disinclined to follow up either, pointing to a pile of similar reports of identity theft and credit card theft that overflows their limits.
Revenue has estimated that up to 1000 consumers might have given their information to this employee during her 7 month employment with the company. CEO Tim Brainerd stated that the information is immediately protected once it is entered in the system, so no hacking occurred – the employee simply wrote down the numbers as she took the payment information.
“Never in 23 years” has such an incident occurred, Brainerd said. “Short of literally having a supervisor being on every phone call with every person, I think we’ve done all the prudent things we can do.”
It’s just so low!
Heather Oglinsky is in shock that people would use such methods to get what they want. “It’s one thing to steal, but to steal from people who obviously have been through a hard time and whose child has been through a hard time, I think you have to be a pretty bad person,” she said. “It’s just so low.”
Revenue Enterprises is currently drafting a letter to the people who may have been affected by the employee’s tendency to dip sticky fingers. “The safety, security and well being of our families is our first priority, and in that spirit we will continue to closely monitor this situation,” a statement issued by the company began.
Of the matter at hand, the Oginskys are more impressed with the hospital and billing provider’s handling of matters than the hotel or law enforcement. “I thought they handed it very expediently and very appropriately,” said Marcus Oginsky.
Consumers making payments over the phone might want to ask for some identification of the live person taking their payment, and even opt for online and or / automated phone payments when necessary. Just a few steps like keeping track of who you give out info to can help track ID thieves later.
