Federal agents have busted a massive Armenian-American crime ring that defrauded Medicare of $35 million through bogus clinics across the country that used the stolen identities of doctors and patients, according to indictments unsealed this week. Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in New York City, said in a statement that it’s the “single-largest Medicare fraud ever perpetrated by a single criminal enterprise.”

Prosecutors charged 44 people in New York, Los Angeles, Ohio, New Mexico and Georgia with a variety of offenses, including racketeering, health care fraud, identity theft, money laundering and bank fraud.

The alleged godfather of the crime syndicate, Armen Kazarian, 46, was arrested in Los Angeles. Prosecutors said the “vor,” an Armenian word meaning “thief-in-law,” ruled by intimidation and fear, providing protection to members of the group and resolving disputes with threats of violence. Two other alleged ringleaders, Davit Mirzoyan, 34, of Glendale, Calif., and Robert Terdjanian, 35, of Brooklyn, were also named in the indictment.

The scam was brazen in its scope but hardly sophisticated, according to the indictments. Fake clinics in 25 states — some of them no more than a rented mailbox — sent bills to the nation’s health care system for procedures that included an ultrasound given to a pregnant woman by an ear, nose and throat doctor and heart tests conducted by a dermatologist.

Read more from AOL News here.

The FBI completed a massive sweep of New Jersey and arrested roughly 50 alleged members of a massive bank-fraud ring that authorities say hijacked identities of overseas workers to bilk financial institutions. Authorities say members of the ring used Social Security numbers from Asian immigrants who worked in American territories, including Guam, to apply for driver’s licenses under fake names, which they then utilized to secure credit cards.

As an organization, the FBI has a huge scope of work when it comes to law enforcement and protecting the nation — from protecting us from terrorist threats to protecting civil rights and combating corruption (it’s a massive responsibility). So, we always applaud them for making the effort to stop bank fraud and combat identity theft.

So, congratulations, FBI, you are the “Best Person of the Week.”

We know readers of this blog are sophisticated when it comes to security, but we thought it wouldn’t hurt to share some of these tips from Intersections and ITAC about making your vacation a safe one:

• Protect your home from burglars and identity thieves before you leave. Have your mail collected or held at the Post Office, ideally have someone visit and turn lights on and off, and do not leave financial documents lying in plain view.
• If you’re staying at a hotel or motel and receive a call from the reception desk asking that you confirm a credit card number, tell them you’ll provide the information at the front desk instead. The call could easily be a random one from outside the hotel.
• Bring as few credit cards as possible and ideally carry just one with you and keep a backup card in the hotel safe. Bring a copy of the emergency contact numbers for your credit cards and bank accounts in case they’re lost or stolen.
• It is recommended that travelers do not use their debit cards while on vacation to further protect their checking accounts.
• When withdrawing money from an ATM, be cautious, and be protective of your PIN.
• Beware of pickpockets–remove all documentation and cards from your wallet or purse that you don’t need during your travels.
• Use cash or travelers checks wherever possible to minimize the risk of credit card fraud or overcharging (this can also help avoid costly exchange fees if you’re traveling abroad).
• Make a photocopy of the cards and documents in your wallet or purse, including credit and ATM cards, store cards, drivers’ licenses, etc. Leave the copy with someone you trust so if your wallet or purse is stolen, you’ll know what to cancel. Or enroll in a card registry program that has your card information on file.
• If you’re leaving for an extended period consider using a credit and public monitoring service that alerts you to potentially suspicious activity.

According to an interesting blog called Currency History, “In all the history of the world currency evolution is marked with lots of changes. First of all we were trading with commodity money. Many cultures around the world eventually developed the use of commodity money. Ancient China and Africa used cowrie shells. Trade in Japan’s feudal system was based on the koku – a unit of rice per year. The shekel was an ancient unit of weight and currency. The first usage of the term came from Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC and referred to a specific weight of barley, which related other values in a metric such as silver, bronze, copper etc. A barley/shekel was originally both a unit of currency and a unit of weight.”

So, as human beings, we have been using currency for a very long time. This actually begs the question…then has there always been crime and fraud aimed at bilking others out of their hard-earned cash? The answer is yes. Check out our ID theft history contest we did last year here. And, check out this article about the Fraud Museum.

So, what does this tell us about the future of fighting fraud? It’s going to be an uphill battle because financial fraud was is and always will be around. What do you all think?

Since we cover cyber security on an ongoing basis, and have received some very thoughtful comments from our readers, we would like to tap into this collective knowledge and come up with three recommendations to help strengthen our nation’s cyber security efforts. As such, we would like to hear from you! Please post in the comments section your top three recommendations for the new “cyber czar,” and we will pull these together into an official letter for this person.

We welcome any and all ideas. Surely, this person could benefit from the collective wisdom of our readers, and as many of us agree, there is only room for improvement when it comes to national cyber security.