Am I paranoid or justifiably cautious?

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DWSmith

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A few years ago I got an email at work from my employer notifying me that I would be contacted by someone from our healthcare insurer providing a service to help us make changes to improve our health. Sounds reasonable. So one evening a few weeks later I get a call from a woman claiming to be a nurse representing the program. The first thing she wanted me to do was answer questions so she could verify my identity. I said, "What???" and began laughing at her. Then I said, "You called me. First you need to identify your identity!"

Today (and every time I have a doctor's appointment scheduled) I got an email and a text to confirm an appointment I have with my doctor next week. Then it wants be to do the pre-check in questionnaire beginning with verifying my identity. (???)

In both cases I have played along and participated but in the first case I let the calling nurse know that I don't like getting a call out of the blue asking for personal information to "verify my identity" when the caller could be someone attempting to steal my identity.

I wonder if as a society we've become too complacent and just accept things like these without question?

Every year or two I get a call from some guy always asking for Donald. When I say there's no Donald here he starts his presentation claiming to be from some police organization raising money for a good cause and asking me for a donation. I tell him I don't make contributions like this but if he wants to mail some literature to me about this I'll gladly look at it and decide. Nothing ever shows up in the mail. I have since searched on the internet and found this to be a popular scam.
 
I don't think it is paranoia. Around five years ago, my dentist office was sold to a dental conglomerate. I didn't know it at the time, so when I was there for my annual, I had to fill in all their proprietary paperwork. It asked for my email. I almost gave them a fake one, but against my better judgement, I gave one of my emails because it was for "safe" medical reasons. Wrong. By the time I got home, and I mean not more than 45 minutes later, I already had at least 30 emails from various other dentists, dental related drugs and contraptions, etc. The moment the receptionist entered my information, it was sold to who-knows-how-many other businesses, including other dentists. It wasn't enough that they were charging me almost double what my original dentists charged, which was already high in my opinion, but then they had to make another X amount of money from my information. I was pissed, to put it mildly. And there was nowhere on those new patient forms that asked for my permission to sell my data. They know because it is medical, they are free from normal restraints and expectations. I should also add that as I was leaving, then having seen the new and higher charges, I asked for a "menu" of services with pricing so I could get SOME idea of what they would charge me in the future. They refused. I don't care if you have insurance or pay out of pocket. We should know exactly how much everything costs before the fact. I never went back, and for other reasons as well. Also, there were religious symbols and prayers all over the place, giving you this false sense of comfort and trust. A Christian dentist isn't going to rip you off or do unnecessary procedures so they can charge the insurance company out the rear end. No way. I bet they talk about that at medical conventions. "Put up a crucifix over the receptionist window. It gets them every time."

And then to get your $.11 rebate from whatever store, you have to give them your email and phone number...so they can sell it to other data collections. Yeah, you can shove your $.11 rebate, or the false chance to win a $20 gift certificate, up your arse. People do it all day long, though. I don't even give those joints a fake email. I'm already buying something from you. I don't need to become your data cash cow on top of it.
 
Thanks Zeno Marx!

Google Voice and a fake email address should be at everyone's fingertips. I should keep mine handier ... and use them!
 
You’re not paranoid if they’re really out to get you. I get approximately 2-4 emails every day that are scams or phishing types. I ALWAYS click on the sender name which opens the full email address of the sender. Especially if it’s from my bank or a vendor I use or something like that. Or if it’s telling me something wonderful needs my approval to be sent to me. Or that I need to update information. Or if it’s one of the 90% of all my emails that I just immediately delete anyway. Actually the only emails that I feel good about opening are the ones from here telling me someone has posted on a thread I had posted on too. Well, those and the ones from a Nigerian prince wanting to send me money.
 
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