A Medicare Phone Scam

Good afternoon. No card today, but a little Scam Warning that happened to us, and apparently quite a few other folks in our area. Debated on posting this info, but decided the information needed to be out to anyone who has Medicare! I've notified all our friends & relatives that I know have Medicare, and thought I'd copy & paste on the blog, what I've shared on this subject. If it keeps one person from being scammed, then I'm glad. (we are lucky that we weren't, and I'm probably the biggest skeptic on this earth. )

Just for grunts & giggles I’ll pass this on. May not be happening where you are.

You know we got the cc compromised in December…and far as we know, no repercussions from that. The bank caught the transaction and refused it.

 

About 2 wks ago, I got a call, (and we’ve been inundated with crap calls lately), very strong accent, lady said she was from Medicare, wanted me to do a survey on the equipment I get from Oggles (which is where our sleep apnea machines & supplies come from). Well, even ole skeptical me, who hangs up on everything, understood the Medicare bit so I listened. The survey was innocuous, no personal info asked, just 5 questions like: Do your supplies arrive on time, were you adequately shown how to use the machine, if you’ve visited the office, was it friendly, clean, etc. The types of questions I’d expect. So I answered.

 

About a week later, Mr gets a call, hangs up and said it was somebody about a back & knee brace that had been ordered for him. I heard him say “I’m not interested” and he hung up. Then got another call, referencing the 1^st one, said somebody had called, requesting the knee & back brace. (this is what he’s telling me)..He said “I didn’t request it, not had one ordered for me either. Quit bothering me” and he hung up. Well, yesterday evening, I get a call, says it from Medicare, very hard to understand this lady, but I thought it was HIS survey about the breathing machine, so I told him to pick up. He said it was about the same brace stuff. So got to thinking maybe I best check with Medicare to see if somebody is trying to run a scam ordering stuff for him & being billed to Medicare. Hunted up an old medicare statement to get their number.

The guy at Medicare said he’s gotten many calls about this, and after I told him the story - about the 3 calls, the earlier “medicare survey” call about the machine, he had me call the Federal Trade Commission. (again other than Mr’s medicare info, he didn’t ask me personal stuff, and I initiated the call to the number on one of our medicare forms). I happened to mention to him that our cc had been compromised in December, and he said: Be sure you tell the FTC this as well. OK, so I call, get this lady, and give her the same info. Apparently it’s something that is pretty widespread. She had me call the Transunion credit thing & put a Fraud Alert on Mr’s name, so that if anybody is trying to open any accounts, get credit, etc. it’s flagged, and they won’t be able to do anything without contacting us, and making us give the proper info. Apparently Transunion notifies the other 2 credit report agencies. I didn’t get a person, just an automated voice with a menu. It’s in effect for 90 days.

Thought I’d pass this along so if ya’ll get these kinds of things, just be aware. The guy at medicare said Medicare will NEVER make calls like this. He guessed (and I agree) that the first call was the ‘hook’ & precipitated the others. Talk about feeling a red face. But the first one really did sound legitimate, and the questions were the types of things we’ve gotten before for surveys on businesses we’ve dealt with. So just be aware! Fortunately I had the number still in the caller id from yesterday, but suspect it’s probably some kind of boiler type thing..area code was 818. I was asked if we had that number, so I’m glad this id was the only one we didn’t know who it was and it was approximately the time that both of us remember the call coming in. About the normal dinner time. Probably foreign.