One of the hottest issues for scammers right now is the Affordable Care Act. Implementation of this program is opening opportunities partly because it’s a new and partly because there’s a huge amount of misinformation about how the program works. Here’s a closer look at how the scammers are taking advantage.
Anyone who is 65 or older is a prime target for the multitude of Medicare scams. Scammers love preying on seniors because seniors are often trusting and compliant. The scammer asks a question—the senior answers without thinking. That’s typically the way it works. In a nod to “doing things the way we used to do them,” the scammers are even supplementing their email schemes with telemarketing and door-to-door sales.
What would you do if someone called or showed up at your door and told you they were sent or were calling to help you make your health care choices under the new act? What if they said you’d been selected to receive free medical service alert equipment? Or that they needed to verify your ID to complete a claim? If your answer involved anything other than getting rid of the person contacting you, it would be wrong. Scammers are persistent and great at applying pressure. A sure sign that you’ve become a target is when they give you a deadline. Have you received one of these calls or had a visitor at the door and are willing to share?
