We received a frantic call from Brenda, a long-time client. She was somewhat panicked in that she had received several messages and
phone calls from a caller who identified themselves as calling from Medicare and wanted her personal details to correct a problem
with her file at Medicare.
Brenda was extremely suspicious and was reluctant to give the caller the personal information they were requesting. Good for her!
She called our office and asked if we knew of any program that was being carried out by Medicare to correct personal information
in her file. We assured her absolutely not! The IRS, Social Security, and Medicare will never call you on the phone requesting information of a personal nature unless you call them and they are calling you back. They will communicate by mail.
There are currently several phone scams involving phone calls to inform you of your new member cards arriving from Medicare and
the caller just needs to verify your mailing address and other personal information. Some other scams to watch for:
–In some cases, the caller makes threatening or intimidating statements to scare you into cooperating and giving up your
personal information. “Do you want your new card or not?”
–The caller states you owe money to the IRS and you are going to be sued or arrested unless you cooperate and give them your
information, or make an immediate payment for the amount they claim you owe.
–The caller states there is something wrong with your Social Security check payments and they need your personal information
to correct the problem, so your payments are not interrupted. They may even promise you that they can get an increase in your
monthly check amount if you cooperate.
–The caller claims to be calling from Social Security, alerting you that you are the victim of identity fraud and they need to purge
your file or correct some other personal info in your file.
–The caller says they are from the FBI and you are in violation of some federal crime and need you to pay the fine right now or be arrested.
–The caller states they are from some police department and your spouse, child, or grandchild was arrested and they need a
credit card payment for the fine or bail to release your loved one.
These fraud calls can sometimes be very convincing in that the caller manipulates your caller ID so that it appears that they are
calling from a government facility or legitimate government phone number.
If you don’t recognize the number, don’t answer the phone. In one case, the caller merely asked a question designed where you
would say ‘yes.’ The ‘yes’ was recorded, and the caller then used your voice recording to approve a transaction for a fraudulent
purchase.
If you receive one of these calls hang up immediately! Check your credit cards and bank account to ensure nothing is amiss.
Then report the call online to the BBB Scam Tracker or the FCC Consumer Help Center. Both websites allow you to write an
explanation of exactly what happened and when.