BEWARE NEW MEDICARE CARD SCAMS
Medicare started mailing new Medicare cards to beneficiaries in April and will finish mailing them nationwide over the next year. They have a new look but, most importantly, they have unique numbers that are different than the Social Security numbers previously used on the cards. Medicare created the new cards to reduce identity theft and fraud.
Ironically, fraudsters are capitalizing on the mailings to deceive seniors. They may have many details about individuals, often obtained from social media and other publicly available resources. They sound convincing. Here are some tips to avoid the Medicare card scams.
The new Medicare cards don’t cost anything!
Scammers try to convince seniors that they need to pay to obtain either a temporary or permanent new card. Costs range from $5 to $400.
In another version of this scam, callers, pretend they are from a government agency, say they need your bank account information to deposit funds into their account.
You do not need to get personal.
Scammers try to convince seniors to confirm or give personal information in order to get their new card. In reality, seniors do NOT need to give out any personal information in order to get their new cards. The cards are mailed to the address Social Security has on file.
Your Medicare insurance will not be canceled.
In this scam, callers claim they need an old Medicare card number to prevent their insurance from being interrupted while new cards are being mailed out. In reality, there will be no interruption in service. In fact, both the old and new Medicare numbers may be used through December 2019.
