When I first heard about professional identity theft, I thought of the movie Catch Me If You Can. In it Leonardo DiCaprio plays conman Frank William Abagnale, Jr. who impersonated a number of different professionals. One of the most notable was a physician.

As a nurse, I wondered why no one checked his credentials. When I apply for nursing jobs, I always have to bring my license and original nursing school diploma. This means lugging my framed diploma to Human Resources offices.

But then I heard the very recent story of Misty Dawn Bacon – a woman who stole the professional identities of nurses in Tennessee as recently as 2018.

If you think identity theft is only when someone steals social security numbers to open credit card accounts, think again. There are people stealing professional credentials from state licensing sites. They are using this information to pose as nurses, therapists, social workers, and doctors.

Healthcare professionals need to understand what this type of identity theft is to avoid becoming victims.

What is ‘professional identity theft’?

Most of us know identity theft as when a criminal uses personal information belonging to someone else. There are estimates that more than 14 million people are victims of identity theft each year.

There are two types of identity theft:

Financial identity theft: This involves opening accounts, getting credit, and using someone’s money.

Non-financial identity theft: This involves things like using someone else’s identity to rent an apartment or get a job. This is where professional identity theft sits.

Professional identity theft involves using someone’s educational background, professional licenses, certifications, previous jobs, professional memberships, etc, to get a job. In many stories about this, the thief had a criminal background already and used the professional’s information to gain employment.

What does professional identity theft look like?

Unfortunately, there are many examples of professional identity theft. Misty Dawn Bacon – mentioned earlier – not only stole the identities of real nurses to get jobs, but also falsely claimed to have degrees from two nursing schools. She managed to work with at least eight healthcare providers over the course of six years, even thought she had no legitimate nursing experience or training.

One of the patients under her care was readmitted to a hospital as a result.

Bacon was already a convicted felon prior to this recent crime. She has since been sentenced to 51 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Earlier this year, Abigail Lindsay Martin of Hillsboro, IL, posed as a Registered Nurse (RN) at a nursing home after stealing the credentials of a real nurse with a similar name. The Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) Martin should have been able to supervise noticed she could not perform basic tasks without first looking up a video. The nursing home administration initially brushed off their concerns because of staff shortages.

Martin was eventually arrested on April 29th, a month after being hired. When police looked into her record, she had 3 prior arrests for things like forgery and identity theft.

There are more examples of professional identity theft:

• Gabriel Feliz used a stolen identity to work as an insurance broker, committing insurance fraud over the course of five years.
• In Maryland, a woman used fake credentials and education transcripts to work as a Social Worker at a treatment center.

Scary as all of these stories are, one important thing to understand is how this theft can even happen.

How does professional identity theft happen?

A lot of professional information is available online, and a growing number of professional identity theft cases in areas like healthcare and social services. Professional licensing information is available online in many states. This makes it easy for the information to be misused by identity thieves.

Carolyn Dinetz stole the information of physical therapist from the New York State Education Department Office of the Profession’s website. She used it to practice as a physical therapist for almost a year at five different facilities before being caught.

Researchers found that 42 states provide online access to the full name and license number of professionals. Many states also include the professional’s address, date of birth, gender, and even phone number.

There are also some states that provide downloadable lists of registered professionals. This is even worse since it makes theft of that information harder to trace. As scary as that sounds, even scarier is that a small number of states allow searches using social security numbers.

You may be wondering why is this information is available to the public at all. The intent was to to regulate certain occupations. The idea was to allow consumers to confirm the person treating them is in fact a licensed professional and not a fraud.

But times have changed, and states have to think about protecting the professional integrity of the people listed on these sites.

How to protect yourself from professional identity theft:

There are things you can do to make it less likely you will be a victim of professional identity theft. To start with, you can take the same precautions recommended to prevent any type of identity theft:

• Do not share your social security number unless absolutely necessary.
• Do not carry your social security card with you.
• Unless required do not share personal information like your birthdate.
• Collect your mail every day and place a hold on your mail if you will be away.
• Monitor for any missing bills to avoid new accounts opening in your name.
• Make sure your devices are all up to date with the latest security features.
• Always review your credit card and bank statements for transactions that do not match.
• Create complex, hard-to-guess passwords.
• Freeze your credit files with credit agencies like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

You can also place a freeze with the National Consumer Telecommunications and Utilities Exchange. This is the credit agency telecom and utility companies use before allowing you to open an account.

As a licensed professional, some additional steps to take are:

• Do not put license information on resumes, when applying for jobs online, or on LinkedIn.
• Shred sensitive documents instead of just putting them in the trash whole. This includes licensing renewal reminders, and professional liability insurance offers.

You can also petition your state licensing board to secure the information on its site and require more stringent search criteria. For example, ask them to require the exact license number. Requiring the exact license number allows background checks for job applications to proceed without compromising your information.

Key Takeaways:

Professional identity theft involves using someone’s professional background and credentials to get a job. There are many example of people assuming the professional identity of someone else. Several examples in the last two years were individuals pretending to be nurses.

Because there is so much professional information – including license numbers – available online, this is a growing problem. Fortunately, there are things you can do to protect your professional identity. This includes actions like:

• Not sharing personal identifying information like your social security number, date of birth, and professional license number unless absolutely necessary.
• Monitoring your accounts and credit report for anything that does not look right.
• Do not put your license information on anything that is public or sharable.

Until there are more rules in place to protect this information professionals will have to take action to protect ourselves.