OT new Medicare scam?

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Roused from my slumbers this morning, because I forgot to turn the ringer on the phone off.

Scammer: (asked for me by name)

Me: (mindful to never say “yes” on the phone) “who is calling?”

Scammer: “I’m calling from a Medicare provider” (first alarm rings, most companies have names, why didn’t she give the name?)

Scammer continues “we want to make sure you received your new Medicare card”

Me: “I received my card years ago”

Scammer: “we want to make sure you are up to date”. (Alarm bells are deafening. She is working up to asking for my Medicare number)

Me: “this conversation is over” and I hung up.

Steve

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Thanks for this heads-up. My husband would be far more susceptible to stuff like this than I…mainly because he’s more concerned with giving scammers the benefit of the doubt. He’s been warned.

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My very first question when I get these sorts of calls is" “Are you telling me you are with/represent Medicare?” They usually hang up immediately. Some try and bluff their way through, I repeat the question adding" are you a US Government employee." Usually, immediate hang up.

If that does not work, I say I am on the DO NOT CALL list; they usually hang up.

I also report all numbers that call (live and robo).

Cheers!
Murph

Of course, if it is a robo-call, I just ask if they are a robot; they usually keep on talking and I hang up

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My 30-40 year old landline phones don’t have caller ID, besides, caller ID can be faked. The other thing about that call was the telltale lag between when I answered, and the robodialer handed off to a human.

Steve

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Someone from the IRS called before the pandemic. I got back to them in the DC area. Guy with a Puerto Rican voice and kids in the background making a behind of himself. I gave him my description of what he is.

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We don’t receive many Medicare calls but we do receive daily calls for folks wanting to buy our home. Then there’s Aetna always wanting to come to the house to see if we’re still alive. Oh, yea, and then there’s the Police Officer’s Association (even though we give to the 100 Club annually).

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Well, the kind of good news is that if you suffer from losses due to theft, fire, storms, and accidents, you can deduct them from your tax return to at least mitigate the damage.

Oh wait! When Republicans passed and President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, most losses due to theft, fire, storms, and accidents were removed from the tax code.

So, in most cases, if you are you scammed, you have to pay taxes on the money that was scammed.

Personal responsibility and all that.

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I have gotten many calls about my social security, even though I was receiving NO social security. Pretty easy tell. :slight_smile:

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Perhaps you have an uncle from Zimbabwe who died and left you $25 million?

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Oh…more than ONE uncle.

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I used to get those, but pretty easy to discourage them. When they want to “confirm” your SSN, I just say “you tell me what it is”. Then they say they are not allowed, and then respond “Either you have it or you do NOT. As you CLAIM to be calling from Social Security, you MUST have it. Or you wouldn’t have called and asked to verify it. So, read it to me. Or you are a fraud. Your choice…” . Then, they either do a song and dance routine about blah-blah-blah. They then hang up and don’t call back.

Remember, the longer you keep them on the phone, the fewer other people they are able to scam.

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