juliasb

I get 4-5 mailings a week for scams with Medicare as well as the legitimate change your plan to an HMO kind of things. They all hit the trash. When it doubt call Medicare yourself. If you want to change your plan ie. straight Medicare to an HMO call Medicare! They will help you with all your concerns and put you in the right direction. Medicare can contact you by mail for legitimate concerns. The mailings from Medicare are well marked and you should watch carefully for such mailings many times you may be expecting that mailing. Especially if you are turning 65 within 6-8 months. Be careful about unsolicited phone calls claiming they are Medicare. U.S. Medicare in not Medicare. Adding those couple letters makes all the difference. Thanks for sharing this very important information. To many people fall victim to things like this all to often.

Onebyone

I don't answer any number that is not in my contact list If someone needs to talk to me they can leave a message. I ask all medical offices to give me the number of any dept that may try to contact me about appointments etc. Most are out of state!

Onebyone

My elderly aunt became a victim of phone scam. She wanted to prove she still had her mind about her and thought she did something good. Her son got her out of the mess and she learned really quick she wasn't as sharp as she thought The scammers know exactly what to say to the elderly. If you have to answer a phone call because the phone rang, then that's a problem.

lberna

If your elderly loved one gets caught up in a scam, check your state laws concerning elder abuse. In Louisiana, any one over 60 is protected from not only physical and emotional abuse but also from acts of financial exploitation and extortion. I know of friends who had to use this law to protect their relatives.

mermaid

Another call today..showed as local. I had some fun w/him and led him on asking questions. He insisted
medicare was going to send a new card with new benefits and was calling everyone. Duh. He got frustrated with me and hung up!

aashley333

My mom was sent an official letterhead notice from Publisher's Clearing House with a check for over $7,000. It looked so good, but it was too good to be true! The bank said that if it was deposited, the account would have been frozen, and they took it to process for fraud. She gets lots of scam calls, and asking her not to answer unknown callers hasn't worked. When they call while I'm visiting, I tell them to remove her from the calling list. I've had some very, very vulgar responses.

mermaid

2 more calls yesterday...the first wanted info from my card. I told him he could get all my info ''at this number..do you have a pencil?" He said 'yes', so I gave him the number for Medicare. He asked me to wait a second, but I disconnected. The second call went thru the same scam routine--wanted to send me a new card but needed to verify the member numbers on my old card. I told him my daughter had my card following a visit to dr yesterday. "Do you want her number so she can give you the info?" (I was ready with our police dept # but he declined and disconnected. I related to a friend who shared with her co-workers. You could almost hear them laughing from 2 miles away!