Medical Identity Theft, Corrupted Health Records, and Fraudulent Billing¶

Discovering an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statement for a $42,000 inpatient surgery, opioid prescription, or emergency room visit you never received is more than a financial headache: it is a life-threatening clinical emergency. Unlike credit card fraud, where a bank simply reverses a charge, medical identity theft merges an impostor's blood type, drug allergies, psychiatric diagnoses, and surgical history directly into your master Electronic Health Record (EHR) across nationwide health information exchanges (CareEverywhere, CommonWell, Carequality, and Surescripts). If you are rushed unconscious into a trauma center and your corrupted health chart lists the wrong blood type, omits your fatal penicillin allergy because the impostor claimed "No Known Drug Allergies (NKDA)", or flags you as a narcotic drug-seeker, emergency clinicians can make fatal treatment errors. Once an impostor exhausts your annual health insurance benefit cap or injects false chronic diagnoses into the MIB Group (Medical Information Bureau) database, you can also be denied life insurance, disability coverage, and critical medical procedures.

If you or a family member are experiencing an acute medical emergency or are being denied urgent hospital care due to a corrupted medical chart, call your local emergency number (911 in the United States and Canada, 112 across the European Union, 999 in the United Kingdom) or consult our directory of international emergency numbers immediately, and tell the triage physician in person to ignore the automated electronic chart and run a fresh blood type and crossmatch. For all other cases of medical identity theft, false health records, or fraudulent healthcare billing, follow the remediation workflow below.

Do this now¶

1. Order your complete "Designated Record Set" AND "Accounting of Disclosures" from every affected hospital, clinic, and insurer: Under the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA, 45 CFR § 164.524 and § 164.528), you have the legal right to receive a complete copy of your medical and billing records within 30 calendar days, plus a 6-year Accounting of Disclosures showing every outside organization that received your protected health information. Do not rely on the basic consumer view inside your online patient portal (MyChart), which hides internal billing codes and administrative notes.
2. File an official Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Report (IdentityTheft.gov) and a local Police Report: Medical providers and health insurers routinely refuse to delete fraudulent debt or alter clinical charts on a patient's word alone. Generating a formal FTC Identity Theft Report and obtaining a local Police Incident Report Number triggers statutory debt-blocking protections under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA § 605B, 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-2) and proves you are a crime victim.
3. Warn your primary care physician and local hospital triage desk to place a "Clinical Safety Flag" on your chart: Before legal paperwork takes 30 to 60 days to process, ask your real doctor and local hospital Health Information Management (HIM) department to place an immediate High-Visibility Clinical Alert Banner at the top of your electronic chart warning clinicians: "Confirmed Medical Identity Theft Victim. Verify Blood Type, Allergies, and Medication List directly with patient prior to administration. Fraudulent records from [Dates] are under HIPAA § 164.526 purge."
4. Submit a formal written HIPAA § 164.526 Request for Amendment to the provider's Privacy Officer: Never handle medical record corruption over the phone with a standard billing clerk. Send a USPS Certified Mail demand directly to the hospital's HIPAA Privacy Officer and Health Information Management (HIM) Director demanding that every false diagnosis code (ICD-10), procedure code (CPT), allergy override, and clinical note created by the impostor be permanently purged or segregated from your chart, and that corrected notices be transmitted across Epic CareEverywhere and Surescripts.
5. Call your health insurer's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) or Medicare Fraud Hotline (1-800-MEDICARE): Standard customer service representatives at health insurance companies cannot unwind medical identity theft. Ask specifically for the insurer's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) / Fraud Department to flag the fraudulent claims, restore your lifetime and annual benefit maximums, recalculate your deductible, and issue you a new Member ID number.
6. Pull your specialty medical and prescription consumer reports (MIB Group, Milliman IntelliScript, and LexisNexis): Even after a hospital fixes its local database, false diagnoses and prescription histories persist inside third-party underwriting databases used by life, disability, and long-term care insurers. Request and dispute your specialty files at the MIB Group, Milliman IntelliScript, and LexisNexis Risk Solutions, and freeze your primary credit files at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion following our data breach response and password leaks guide.

Decision tree: untangling corrupted clinical records vs. fraudulent insurance billing¶

Medical identity theft falls into two distinct categories that often overlap: Impostor Patient Theft (where an uninsured stranger or acquaintance physically checks into an emergency room or pharmacy using your stolen name, date of birth, Social Security Number, or insurance card) and Insider / Provider Upcoding & Phantom Billing Fraud (where a corrupt clinic, durable medical equipment company, or telehealth mill bills your Medicare or private insurance number for genetic tests, back braces, or visits that never happened). Use this flowchart to isolate both threats:

flowchart TD
    Start["Red Flag Detected: Strange EOB Statement, Unfamiliar MyChart Visit, Pharmacy Alert, or Collection Call"] --> Audit["1. Request Full Designated Record Set & 6-Year HIPAA Accounting of Disclosures from Provider & Insurer"]
    Audit --> Type{"2. Did an Impostor Physically Receive Care Under Your Name, or Was It Paper Billing Fraud?"}
    Type -->|"Impostor Patient Received Physical Care / Prescriptions"| Clinical["CRITICAL CLINICAL DANGER: Impostor's Blood Type, Allergies & Labs Are Merged into Your EHR"]
    Type -->|"Phantom Provider Billing Only (DME, Labs, Upcoding)"| Financial["Financial & Underwriting Danger: Benefit Caps Drained & False ICD-10 Diagnoses Logged"]
    Clinical --> Alert["3A. Place Immediate Clinical Safety Alert on Local Hospital Chart & Re-Verify Allergies / Blood Type"]
    Alert --> Both["4. File FTC Identity Theft Report (IdentityTheft.gov) + Local Police Report + HHS OIG / SIU Complaint"]
    Financial --> Both
    Both --> HIPAA["5. Mail Formal HIPAA § 164.526 Chart Amendment & Segregation Demand to HIM / Privacy Officer"]
    HIPAA --> HIE["6. Force Propagation of Correction Across Epic CareEverywhere, CommonWell, Carequality & Surescripts"]
    HIE --> Specialty["7. Dispute & Purge MIB Group, Milliman IntelliScript, LexisNexis & Credit Bureau Collection Tradelines"]

The 6 hidden databases where medical identity theft corrupts your life¶

When most patients discover medical identity theft, they call the billing phone number on an invoice and assume that once the hospital zeros out the bill, the problem is solved. In modern healthcare IT infrastructure, a single fraudulent emergency room visit or urgent care check-in replicates across six interconnected national data ecosystems within seconds. If you do not purge all six layers, the impostor's medical profile will re-infect your chart every time you visit a new doctor.

Phase 1: Spotting the early warning signs of medical identity theft¶

Because hospitals and laboratories rarely call a patient before submitting an electronic claim, 65 percent of medical identity theft victims do not realize their health identity has been compromised until months later. Audit your records if you notice any of these eight red flags:

1. Unfamiliar items on an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) or Medicare Summary Notice (MSN): Never discard an EOB envelope just because the front page states "THIS IS NOT A BILL: PATIENT OWES $0.00." Corrupt durable medical equipment (DME) mills bill Medicare or commercial insurance for orthotic braces, continuous glucose monitors, PCR panels, or genetic tests while waiving the patient copay so you never receive a provider invoice. Read every line item on every EOB and MSN to verify that you saw that doctor on that date.
2. Strange clinical entries, allergies, or height/weight changes inside MyChart: Log into your online patient portals (Epic MyChart, Oracle Health, Healow, Athenahealth) and inspect Health Summary -> Allergies, Medications, Immunizations, and Past Visits. If your blood type changed, your listed height jumped by 10 centimeters (4 inches), an unfamiliar substance history appeared, or an unknown emergency department visit is listed, your MPI (Master Patient Index) has been hijacked or merged ("chart overlay").
3. Sudden denial of coverage for a legitimate medical procedure or prescription: If your pharmacy refuses to fill your prescription because insurance claims it was filled days ago across town, or your insurer denies prior authorization for a knee brace, CPAP machine, or physical therapy session because your annual benefit limit is exhausted, someone else is draining your policy.
4. Unexpected notifications from MyChart regarding external clinic linkages: Modern EHR platforms send automated alerts when a clinic in another health system links to your record or schedules a telehealth appointment. Treat any unfamiliar clinic linkage as an active breach.
5. Debt collection calls, texts, or lawsuits for unfamiliar hospital, pathology, radiology, or ambulance bills: Emergency room visits generate up to five separate bills (hospital facility fee, emergency physician group, radiologist, pathologist, and ambulance). Receiving a collection notice from an unfamiliar physician staffing group (Envision, TeamHealth, or US Acute Care Solutions) is often the first sign that an impostor used your name and SSN at an emergency room months ago.
6. Suspicion from doctors regarding controlled substance prescriptions: If a physician or nurse suddenly questions you about opioid use, refuses standard post-operative medication, or mentions visits you never made, ask them to check your State PDMP (Prescription Drug Monitoring Program) and Epic CareEverywhere logs for impostor activity.
7. Receiving an IRS Form 1095-A, 1095-B, or 1095-C for an unfamiliar health insurance policy: Rogue insurance brokers sometimes use stolen Social Security Numbers and birth dates to enroll victims in subsidized Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace plans without consent to pocket broker commissions. When you file your federal tax return, the IRS rejects your return or demands repayment of Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTC).
8. Receiving a data breach notification letter from a hospital, clearinghouse (Change Healthcare), or lab (Quest, LabCorp): Healthcare breaches expose the exact package criminals need: Full Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, Health Insurance Member ID, and Group Number.

Phase 2: Securing your clinical safety and auditing your complete medical record¶

Before fighting with billing departments, your top priority is making sure that no doctor, nurse, or paramedic relies on corrupted medical data to treat you in an emergency.

Step 1: Place an Immediate "Medical Identity Theft Clinical Safety Alert" on Your Real Charts¶

Contact the Health Information Management (HIM) / Medical Records Department at your primary care physician's office and the nearest hospital system where you would be taken in an ambulance. - Inform the HIM Director that you are a confirmed victim of medical identity theft (or a "Mixed / Overlaid Medical Record" where another patient's file was merged into yours). - Request that they place a Break-the-Glass / High-Visibility Clinical Safety Banner on your Master Patient Index (MPI) record so that any clinician opening your chart sees an immediate popup warning to verify your identity with a photo ID, re-verify your drug allergies, and run a fresh blood type and screen. - Ask your primary care doctor to print a Signed, Verified Paper Clinical Summary (listing your true blood type, drug allergies, active medications, and chronic conditions) and carry a copy in your wallet alongside your ID and insurance card.

Step 2: Demand Your Complete "Designated Record Set" and "Accounting of Disclosures" Under HIPAA¶

Do not simply ask a clinic receptionist for a copy of your visit notes. Under federal law (45 CFR § 164.524 and 45 CFR § 164.528 in the United States; UK GDPR Subject Access Request in the United Kingdom; PIPEDA / PHIPA in Canada; GDPR Article 15 across the European Union), submit a written request to the provider's HIPAA Privacy Officer or Release of Information (ROI) Department demanding three datasets:

1. The Complete Designated Record Set (45 CFR § 164.524): Request all intake registration forms, scanned copies of the driver's license and insurance card presented at registration, signed consent-to-treat forms, triage nursing notes, physician notes, laboratory and radiology results, discharge summaries, and itemized UB-04 / CMS-1500 billing claim forms showing every ICD-10 diagnosis code and CPT procedure code billed. Under federal HIPAA rules, the provider must furnish these records within 30 calendar days (or 15 days in California under Health & Safety Code § 123110).
2. A 6-Year HIPAA Accounting of Disclosures (45 CFR § 164.528): Demand a written log of every external entity, registry, or business associate that received your Protected Health Information (PHI) over the past six years, plus a log of every Health Information Exchange (HIE) query (Epic CareEverywhere, CommonWell, Carequality) that pulled the fraudulent encounter into outside hospital systems.
3. EHR Audit Trail / Access Logs (45 CFR § 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(D) & 42 U.S.C. § 17935(e)): If you suspect an insider (such as a hospital employee or billing clerk) stole or altered your record, request the Electronic Health Record Audit Trail showing the user IDs, timestamps, and terminal locations of every staff member who accessed your chart during the fraudulent date range.

Phase 3: Forcing hospitals to purge false clinical records (HIPAA § 164.526)¶

Once you have reviewed the records and identified every visit, lab test, diagnosis, or prescription that does not belong to you, you must legally compel the healthcare provider to remove or segregate the corrupted entries from your chart.

How the Statutory HIPAA § 164.526 Amendment Process Works¶

Under 45 CFR § 164.526 (Right to Amend Protected Health Information): 1. Your Written Amendment Demand: Submit a signed, dated letter to the hospital's HIPAA Privacy Officer and Director of Health Information Management (HIM) identifying each date of service, diagnosis code (ICD-10), medication, allergy entry, and clinical note that belongs to an identity thief or chart overlay error. 2. The Hospital's 60-Day Statutory Deadline: Under 45 CFR § 164.526(b)(2), the healthcare provider must act on your amendment request within 60 calendar days of receipt. 3. Chart Unmerging ("De-Overlay") vs. Line-Item Amendment: Professional HIM standards issued by AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) instruct the hospital to extract and segregate the impostor's entire encounter into a separate "John/Jane Doe Fraudulent Account" Master Patient Index (MPI) number, unlinking it from your real MPI chart and restoring your baseline clinical data. 4. Mandatory Downstream Notification (45 CFR § 164.526(c)(3)): Once the provider accepts your amendment and unmerges the fraudulent encounter, federal law requires the provider to transmit the corrected/unlinked record to every person or organization you identify (your real doctors, your health insurer, and specialty bureaus like MIB Group), and every Health Information Exchange (Epic CareEverywhere, CommonWell, Carequality) and pharmacy network (Surescripts) that received the corrupted data.

What if a Provider Denies Your HIPAA § 164.526 Amendment Request?¶

If a hospital or clinic refuses to amend or unlink the false entries, federal law (45 CFR § 164.526(d)) gives you three legal counter-measures: 1. Right to File a Formal "Statement of Disagreement" (45 CFR § 164.526(d)(2)): Submit a written Statement of Disagreement (attaching your FTC Identity Theft Report and Police Report) explaining which entries are fraudulent and what your true blood type, allergies, and medical history are. 2. Mandatory Permanent Attachment to All Future Disclosures (45 CFR § 164.526(d)(4)): Once you file a Statement of Disagreement, the hospital is legally required to permanently append your Statement of Disagreement to the disputed medical record, and must include your Statement of Disagreement with every future disclosure or electronic HIE transmission of that record. 3. Federal Enforcement Complaint with HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR): File a formal HIPAA Privacy Rule complaint at ocrportal.hhs.gov within 180 days, and copy your State Medical Board and State Attorney General.

Copy-and-Paste Script: Formal HIPAA § 164.526 Medical Record Purge & Amendment Demand¶

Send this letter via USPS Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested to the provider's HIPAA Privacy Officer, Health Information Management (HIM) Director, and Patient Financial Services / Fraud Department:

[Your Full Legal Name]
[Your Current Mailing Address]
[Your Date of Birth] | [Your Telephone Number]
[Date]

VIA USPS CERTIFIED MAIL: RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED

TO: HIPAA Privacy Officer & Director of Health Information Management (HIM)
[Name of Hospital, Health System, or Medical Clinic]
[Hospital/Clinic Street Address]

RE: FORMAL DEMAND FOR MEDICAL RECORD AMENDMENT, CHART SEGREGATION, AND FCRA § 605B DEBT SUPPRESSION
Victim Name: [Your Full Legal Name] | DOB: [MM/DD/YYYY]
Affected Account / MRN Number(s): [List Numbers] | Disputed Date(s) of Service: [List Dates]
FTC Report #[Number] | Police Report #[Number]

Dear HIPAA Privacy Officer and HIM Director:

I am a confirmed victim of medical identity theft involving medical services and billing claims recorded under my identity at [Name of Facility] on [Disputed Date(s) of Service]. Enclosed are copies of my photo ID, my Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Identity Theft Report, and Police Incident Report #[Number]. I never visited [Name of Facility] on [Disputed Date(s) of Service] and never authorized anyone to use my identity or insurance. Because an impostor's clinical data has been merged into my Electronic Health Record (EHR), this corruption poses an immediate clinical safety hazard to my care. Pursuant to federal law, I make the following statutory demands:

1. DESIGNATED RECORD SET & ACCOUNTING OF DISCLOSURES (45 CFR § 164.524 & § 164.528): Within 30 calendar days, provide a complete copy of all intake forms, scanned IDs, signed consents, clinical notes, and itemized UB-04/CMS-1500 claims for the disputed encounters, plus a 6-year HIPAA Accounting of Disclosures and Health Information Exchange (HIE) transmission log (Epic CareEverywhere, CommonWell, Carequality, Surescripts).
2. CHART AMENDMENT & CLINICAL SEGREGATION (45 CFR § 164.526): Within 60 calendar days, permanently extract, unlink, and segregate all clinical notes, ICD-10 diagnosis codes, CPT codes, lab results, allergy changes, and prescriptions from [Disputed Date(s) of Service] out of my Master Patient Index (MPI) chart into a separate fraud investigation file.
3. DOWNSTREAM HIE NOTIFICATION (45 CFR § 164.526(c)(3)): Transmit an electronic Correction / Chart Unlink Notice to all Health Information Exchanges, Surescripts, my insurer ([Insurer Name, Member ID]), and every recipient on my Accounting of Disclosures.
4. BILLING SUPPRESSION (FCRA § 605B): Cancel all patient statements for Account(s) #[Numbers], withdraw claims submitted to my insurer so my benefit caps and deductibles are restored, and recall any accounts sent to collectors or credit bureaus under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-2.

Sincerely,
[Your Signature & Printed Name]

Phase 4: Cleaning up fraudulent insurance claims, specialty bureaus, and ACA Marketplace fraud¶

After locking down your hospital charts, purge the financial, underwriting, and tax databases that feed off healthcare claims.

Step 1: Health Insurance SIU, Medicare (1-800-MEDICARE), and New Member ID Card¶

1. Private / Employer Health Insurance: Call the number on the back of your insurance card and ask for the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) / Fraud Department. Provide your FTC and Police Report numbers, and ask the investigator to void every fraudulent claim on your EOB statements, restore your annual deductible and lifetime or annual benefit caps, and issue a brand-new Member ID card.
2. Original Medicare (Part A, Part B, Part D) or Medicaid: Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to report fraudulent items on your Medicare Summary Notice (MSN), file a report with the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) at oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud/ (1-800-447-8477), and contact your state's Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) at smpresource.org (1-877-808-2468) to get a compromised Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) replaced.

Step 2: Audit and Dispute the 3 Specialty Medical & Prescription Underwriting Bureaus¶

Life, disability, and long-term care insurance underwriters pull reports from three Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) specialty consumer reporting agencies. If an impostor's hospital visit or pharmacy fill logged a false diagnosis or opioid prescription under your SSN, audit and dispute all three:

Step 3: Resolving Fraudulent ACA Marketplace Enrollment (IRS Form 1095-A Tax Fraud)¶

If a rogue insurance agent or identity thief enrolled your Social Security Number in an Affordable Care Act (ACA) HealthCare.gov / State Marketplace plan without your consent, the IRS will reject your federal tax return (Form 1040) because an electronic Form 1095-A was issued under your SSN showing monthly Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTC). Do not attach the fraudulent 1095-A as if the policy were yours. Follow the CMS / IRS Unauthorized Marketplace Enrollment Protocol: 1. Call the HealthCare.gov Marketplace Call Center (1-800-318-2596) and state that you are reporting an Unauthorized Marketplace Enrollment / Agent Fraud. Request an investigation and a Voided / Corrected Form 1095-A (showing $0 across all months) transmitted to you and the IRS. 2. Report the Agent/Broker of Record: Ask the Marketplace representative for the Name and National Producer Number (NPN) of the Agent/Broker on the fraudulent application, and report them to your State Insurance Commissioner and IdentityTheft.gov. 3. Filing Your Tax Return: Per IRS Instructions for Form 8962 ("Policy Obtained by Another Taxpayer"), once you have reported the unauthorized policy to the Marketplace and confirmed that your household never used the policy, follow IRS instructions for filing with a zeroed allocation or attaching IRS Form 14039 until the voided 1095-A arrives.

Frequently asked questions¶

Can a hospital or collection agency ruin my credit score over a fraudulent medical bill?¶

No, provided you exercise your statutory rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA Section 605B, 15 U.S.C. 1681c-2) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). In the United States, the three nationwide credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) already exclude paid medical collection debts, medical debts under 500 dollars, and medical debts less than one year old from consumer credit reports. For any fraudulent medical bill of any dollar amount, sending a copy of your official FTC Identity Theft Report and Police Report to the credit bureaus forces them by federal law to permanently block the trade line within 4 business days and prohibits the hospital or collector from ever selling or reporting the debt again.

Why can't a hospital simply press "Delete" to erase a fraudulent visit from my electronic health record?¶

Under federal HIPAA security regulations (45 CFR 164.312) and state medical record retention laws, Electronic Health Record (EHR) software like Epic and Oracle Cerner is architected as an immutable audit log where clinical notes cannot simply be overwritten without trace. Instead, when you submit a formal HIPAA Section 164.526 Request for Amendment with your Police and FTC Identity Theft Reports, the hospital's Health Information Management (HIM) team performs "Chart Unmerging" or "De-Overlay": they extract the impostor's entire encounter out of your Master Patient Index (MPI) number, place it into a segregated John/Jane Doe fraud investigation file, restore your baseline blood type and allergy profile, and transmit an electronic unlink notice across Epic CareEverywhere and other Health Information Exchanges.

How do I find out if someone used my identity to fill opioid or controlled substance prescriptions?¶

You should audit two separate prescription tracking systems. First, ask your primary care physician or regular pharmacist to query your 5-year commercial medication history through Surescripts (the nationwide e-prescribing network) and request your free consumer disclosure from Milliman IntelliScript (rxhistories.com). Second, because cash-paid controlled substance prescriptions (Schedule II-V opioids, stimulants, and benzodiazepines) are tracked separately by state governments, contact your State Board of Pharmacy or State Department of Health to request your personal Patient Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) report, and submit your Police Report and FTC Identity Theft Report to purge any impostor fills.

Sources checked¶

• US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR): Code of Federal Regulations Title 45, Part 164, HIPAA Privacy Rule Right of Access (45 CFR § 164.524), Right to Amend Protected Health Information (45 CFR § 164.526), and Right to an Accounting of Disclosures (45 CFR § 164.528).
• American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA): Practice Brief: Mitigating Medical Identity Theft and Managing Master Patient Index (MPI) Overlays and Amendments in Electronic Health Records.
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC, United States): Medical Identity Theft Remediation Guidelines, IdentityTheft.gov Recovery Plan, and Fair Credit Reporting Act Section 605B (15 U.S.C. § 1681c-2) 4-Day Block Mandates.
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) & HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG): Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) Compromise Protocols, Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Fraud Remediation, and HealthCare.gov Unauthorized Marketplace Enrollment (Form 1095-A) Resolution Procedures.
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB, United States): Fair Credit Reporting Act Specialty Consumer Reporting Agency List (MIB Group, Milliman IntelliScript, LexisNexis, ExamOne) and Medical Debt Collection Rules under Regulation F (FDCPA).

Related guides¶

• Data breach response, leaked passwords, and credit freezes
• Child identity theft and synthetic credit file freeze
• Fake remote job offer scams, equipment check fraud, and I-9 identity theft
• Email account hacked, hidden forwarding rules, and recovery
• Emergency numbers by country