Fraud accusations must be taken seriously, as they can have a massive impact on the rest of your life. These are highly-technical crimes that often rely on a lot of paperwork, financial accounts, digital information and the like. As such, mistakes and misinterpretations do happen. You may have done nothing wrong, but the information has been misinterpreted to appear fraudulent. You still need to take it seriously and consider all of your options as you defend your good name.
To get started, here are three common types of fraud that you may find yourself accused of:
- Medicare fraud: This generally just means seeking Medicare reimbursement for services that do not deserve it or are being billed at a higher rate. For instance, a recent case saw a medical office accused of charging Medicare at a physician’s rate for services carried out by nurses. It’s not that the office deserved no compensation, but that it should have been at the proper rate. There are also cases of billing for services that weren’t rendered at all.
- Social Security fraud: Those who seek social security benefits are asked to note in writing that their claims are accurate and that they have only made true statements. If they break this condition, it could be fraudulent. For instance, someone could seek disability compensation when they’re not actually disabled by claiming that they have a condition that they do not have or claiming that the condition they have is far more severe than it really is.
- Mortgage fraud: Mortgage fraud happens in numerous ways, and it can be committed by both a lending institution or an individual. For instance, an appraiser could be accused of colluding with a lending institution to value homes at a far higher rate than they deserve, all in order to get larger mortgages — and more interest earnings — for the lender.
At its root, any type of fraud is essentially deception. It is the use of inaccurate information to seek personal gain. If you’re facing these accusations, you must know what steps to take.