Residents at nursing homes should be concerned about identity theft

When putting a family member in a nursing home, people are attempting to give their loved ones a better life, as they are no longer able to care for themselves.

However, it appears as though they need to worry about identity theft, as two nursing aides in Virginia were recently caught accessing the personal information of 3,700 patients, according to the Virginian-Pilot. Fewer than 250 people actually fell victim, but the two aides were able to gain access to $116,000.

"We are in the process of implementing protocols that will help identify this sort of behavior in the future, before any harm can come to our patients," Greg Burkhart, Senatra Healthcare's chief privacy officer, told the news source.

Senior citizens are increasingly becoming targets of identity theft, especially in medical settings, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

In addition to nursing homes and other facilities taking the necessary steps to prevent this type of crime, short term lenders need to also be a line of defense. Strong ID verification procedures need to be put in place to ensure loan applicants aren't using fraudulent identities to open new lines of credit.