Medicare Scams: Are You Updating Your Clients?

There has been a lot of articles lately that are warning seniors to be aware of Medicare scams that are aimed at taking advantage of them during the pandemic. Have you contacted your most vulnerable clients to let them know of these scams? It might be a good time to reach out to them and educate them on what types of information they should never give out.

The latest scam that has been circulating, according to the Health and Human Services office, is preying on older people’s fears. These offers are not only coming on the telephone but are showing up as social media posts, emails and even door-to-door visits.

This is what seniors, and even low-income Medicaid recipients, are being targeted with:

• Offering tests for COVID-19
• Offering Senior Care Packages with hand sanitizer, and
• Offering a vaccine, which doesn’t exist
• Someone claiming to be from a hospital where a loved one is being treated for the virus but is in urgent need of money before lifesaving treatments can be rendered
• Claiming President Trump has ordered all seniors to get tested
• Unsolicited emails offering expert advice or information. They could contain malware or the links in the email could take you to a site with malware.

It’s important to let your clients know that they should never provide confidential information to anyone on the phone, online, or to someone at your door. Advise your clients to never give out their social security number or their Medicare number. If they have questions about a phone call they have received, ask them to hang up and call you, their trusted Medicare agent to verify. But to never provide the callers any information.