Reports of Medicare and impersonation scams are rising, but there are ways to prevent yourself from being scammed.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received nearly one million reports about impersonation scammers — people who pose as fake government agents, pretend grandkids, “bogus sweethearts” and others. These types of scammers include those who pose as Medicare representatives.
Almost $2.3 billion was taken from people by these scammers last year. So far this year, impersonation scams are still the most-reported fraud nationwide, FTC officials say.
These scams are not just limited to Medicare, but to other agencies as well, along with non-government entities. In May, the inspectors general for three federal agencies and departments — the Social Security Administration, the Department of Labor and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) — along with the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee and the FBI warned that scammers were emailing and texting pictures of real and doctored law enforcement credentials and badges to prove they are legitimate and to scam people out of money.
No one in federal law enforcement will send photographs of credentials or badges to demand any kind of payment, and neither will government employees, according to the joint alert.
Scammers who use the word Medicare use it to get access to those who are most vulnerable — older generations. Scammers can figure out who these people are quick as older generations tend to still have landlines and appear in phone books, said James Bryant, a detective with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. Bryant is not an expert on scams but routinely deals with them through his role as a detective, he said.
Phone books also provide another way for scammers to gain information: addresses. If a scammer gets someone’s address, they can find their home online and go to street-view to see what the property looks like. Doing this allows scammers to infer their household income based on what vehicles are in their driveway and how large their house is, Bryant said.
Telephonic scams tend to be most common because there are still generations that answer the phone without hesitation, while younger generations tend to text more to stay in contact. Older generations are used to a time when the only way to get hold of someone was through a landline telephone, Bryant said.
“They still answer the phone every time it rings, and they have a hard time putting it up,” he said.
When scammers call, they tend to give limited information. For example, they can call a person and ask them to confirm their name, but they should already have this information, he said.
“They called you, they should know that,” Bryant said.
There are several things that people can keep in mind to prevent themselves and their loved ones from falling victim to scams.
People should be limited and careful with information they give out over the phone. It is perfectly OK for someone to not answer the phone if they don’t recognize the number, and if the conversation appears to be going in an uncomfortable direction, it is also perfectly fine to hang up the phone, Bryant said.
It is also OK to ask questions if there are concerns about the legitimacy of the call.
“It’s OK to have some curiosity and be justified in why people are asking certain questions,” Bryant said.
Younger generations need to watch out for their older and/or elderly parents and ask them questions if something appears to be suspicious. In addition to telephones, scammers can find victims online, and in some cases, elderly scam victims have clicked on a link in an email and the next thing that happened was a scammer got into their computer and was able to print off, at the victim’s home, instructions on how to wire money to the scammers, Bryant said.
“People who have elderly parents need to monitor what their parents are doing. … Life savings can be wiped in a matter of minutes,” he said.
