Criminals are buying stolen Medicare identities in bulk at $8 each — then fraudulently billing the government billions

Florida has become a magnet for Medicare fraud — with residents' Medicare identities stolen and sold on the dark web in bulk for $8 apiece to bilk the government out of billions.

Georgia State University professor David Maimon (1) and his Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group have been investigating the trend, one he says is a huge problem in Florida. He's produced a report on it — How Floridians Identities Are Being Used To Fuel Medicare Fraud .

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"It's a combination of the older (2) population, the fact that you have a lot of health care facilities and the fact that you have a lot of criminal groups working there," he told Moneywise. "It's the perfect storm."

Maimon also serves as Head of Fraud Insights at SentiLink (3), a firm that helps financial institutions combat identity fraud. He says there are numerous older Floridians with healthy bank accounts, a prime target for health-fraud crime rings.

Maimon talked to Moneywise about how the criminals obtain and use stolen Medicare identities to commit fraud, what authorities are doing about it — and how people can protect themselves.