Medicare Card Scam, It’s Back

By an edhat reader

The Medicare replacement card scam is once again happening. This morning, I had a call supposedly from Medicare telling me that my replacement card is ready to be sent out. They knew my full name and address, and the fact that I am of the correct age group for qualification. But then the caller asked me to read the number out on the card “for verification purposes”.

If the call was genuine, they would know the number already, but the heavily accented voice insisted the call was genuine and even said they were calling from the 1-800 number for Medicare. (Clearly they were unaware of caller ID, which showed me that the call was actually coming from a local number).

“But we do not have permission to read the number to you, so please verify the number – read it out to me, once digit at a time”. I said that I would gladly give them permission, and why don’t you read it to me, since you initiated this call? She was getting a little testy by then, and it occurred to me that many recipients – most of whom are elderly and unaware of the scammers’ tactics – would have complied by now, thereby giving these thieves access to their identity, often with catastrophic financial results.

So I wanted to spread the word among the local community: watch out for these calls. The vast majority of these callers operate from call centers in Mumbai or New Delhi. Your name and address and age are relatively easy to ascertain from online sources, but don’t let that fool you into believing that the call is from a legitimate authority. If you do have genuine concerns about your Medicare membership, make the call yourself to the correct number (1-800-MEDICARE or 1-800-633-4227). These callers are persistent and won’t give up, so stay vigilant, stay safe and spread the word!