Medicare Number Scam - I fell for it!

[crosinski]

Got a call from someone who said they were from our local pharmacy, which they mentioned by name. They said they were updating their records and proceeded to ask me a few questions, like who my primary doctor was. When I said Dr. Soandso, they said, Dr. Mary Soandso? I said yes and answered several more questions because I thought this person was legitimate.

When they asked for my Medicare No., I gave I to them. When they asked for my height and weight, I gave it to them.

What finally woke me up was when they asked me if I had any medical problems, and then named a few … bad back … bad joints … etc. I said I had arthritis in my knee, and he offered to send me knee braces AT NO COST TO ME!

Well, that's when I realized what a fool I’d been, hung up, googled Medicare fraud, and called 1-800-Medicare. The person I talked to was very kind and professional. They offered to start the process to give me a new number, or flag my number so that they could monitor it for fraud. I decided to keep my number for now.

That's where I am now. Feeling like a fool a hoping that I didn’t give out so much info that someone could fake an ID and charge my account for all sorts of things.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. I get calls like this several times a week

I either hang up or have fun with these idiots. Usually the calls show up on caller ID as scam calls

[crosinski]

8. Wish I had caller ID!

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Is it really a scam, though?

Competition for Supplemental Medicare is a real market and their sales approach might be to uncover a "free" benefit that you could take advantage of, if you know it exists. Not saying they couldn't be scammers, but based on their response to an ailment you might have, seems like a sales pitch that might be made to get you to sign up for their supplemental plan.

[crosinski]

9. It might have been for Medicare Advantage

I hope it was! If it so, then maybe my info is safe and all is well.

[OAITW r.2.0]

11. Sucks to have that uncertainty, though.

I pay United Healthcare $350.00/mo for their plan.

I'd rather pay the USG to handle this. And they can keep the 20% profit for reinvestment into the program. Honestly, between Medicare A/B and a supplemental plan, I've gotten/getting great healthcare value. No out of pocket in 3 years.

And that would be one less scamming vector point, prying on seniors with healthcare misinfo. , who are less capable to deal with these people.

[Deuxcents]

3. You are not a fool. You got scammed by professional thieves

I would have asked Medicare to flag your name and number..just in case. We’ve all been made aware of these scams but they are tricksters and put ya at ease and it could happen to anyone. Keep track of your accounts and report anything that you feel is out of order. Best wishes and don’t fret

[crosinski]

10. Thank you for saying that,

Yes, I was fooled. I’ll never give out my number again, that’s for sure!

[elleng]

4. I used to get calls regularly; started hanging up, calls ended!

[Barry Markson]

5. Rule of thumb

Anytime someone calls asking questions or claiming to be verifying information ask the caller's name and place of business.

Then look up the business number yourself and call and ask for that person by name.

It's likely a phishing expedition or scam.

[crosinski]

13. I know I should have asked for more info

But this guy was very slick. He knew just enough about me to gain my trust.

[usonian]

6. I remember hearing about one way to detect scams.

If it claims to come from your pharmacy, say you’ll call them back

At the pharmacy’s well known number (It’s on all your meds)
When they hear this, they should just give up.

I’m sure there are many other ways, but this popped into my mind.

My Ophthalmologist’s office is begging me weekly to set up an account at a portal.

Having worked with computers most of my career, to me, that’s creating another opportunity for a hacker to break into and grab my info. Right now, major corporations and infrastructure are under heavy attack by China and others.

Apparently a Russian group broke into Microsoft, which hosts unclassified emails for the state department, and got some of their messages, and internal Microsoft correspondence and maybe some program code.

With all their “I.T. experts” they couldn’t prevent a break-in, so whoever is hosting my provider’s portal is going to be safer?

The old line from Taxi went “America’s one tough town”.

I am sure that at the Social Security, Medicare and IRS sites, there is a lot of info on avoiding scams.

Good luck.

[crosinski]

12. That's a smart way to detect a scam.

Unfortunately, I’m not that smart! My take-a-way is that your Medicare No. is like your credit card no. … you just do NOT give it out!

[Skittles]

7. make it a rule

NEVER click on a link that was sent to your email, NEVER answer questions from someone who called you......ALWAYS CONTACT THEM YOURSELF.....

[keithbvadu2]

14. When I said my SS # was 123-45-6789, one of them hung up.