Medicare Scam attempt
 

Just wanted to let all of you know that yesterday about 3:20 PM EST, my phone rang; when I answered it, a female voice said, "This is Medicare, Mrs. (badly messed up last name)"...I asked her "Why does Medicare want to talk to me?" She then hung up. The number she called from is 1-561-331-0838, and that same number has been turned in to Medicare who directed me to call the Federal Trade Commission and make a report...so I did. I was told that whoever this is, she was trying to scam me...so be aware and know that Medicare will NOT call you on the phone: they will either send a letter or may email you...but no calls. I tell you, it's hard to keep up with all the bad stuff they're trying to do these days!!
PS...Mods, if this isn't a good place for this notice, please move to the appropriate area...Thank you!

good to know. yes, it is hard to keep up with all the bad stuff nowadays. We got a call today, they left a message, that they were unable to process our order, and we needed to call for them to complete. The thing is, neither one of us has anything on order, and they never mentioned the company we supposedly ordered from. Message deleted....

Too many scams to keep up with, I had a call come in that showed on my phone as "appointment" of course I didn't answer the call...and I'm sure that this was an attempt to get me to answer the phone...it is a shame that we must be so careful...thanks for the input..

I look at the caller ID before I answer the phone. If I don't recognize the area code or its one of the many different 800 number I let them go to voice mail--I'll read their message on the computer. The one I seem to be getting the most lately is they want to help me-they use my full name- sell my '' time share'' they understand that at my advanced age I could use the extra money and the stress of those monthly payments would be gone..How sweet of them to worry about me like that. My Dad will be 90 in Sept and I don't even consider him to be some one of ' advanced age ' . Great sales pitch and as soon as I remember where that time share is I'll give them a call back.

Add the police fraternity people to that bunch, they have somehow learned my first name, and I end up answering a question or two before I realize who they are and slam the phone on them.....

Add the ones who want to fix your computer. They stopped for a while, and now they've started again.

I get countless telemarketer calls a day, "Google" is a regular, I use a whistle when they call and then blow it in their ears, I felt bad at first but not anymore, they knew the job was dangerous when they took it...I also just found out about this yesterday, so think I might give it a try http://www.phonetray.com/, I just get sick of these people calling....grrrr.

Caller ID is a great thing for us. If we do not recognize the number, we do not answer. If they want us, and are legitimate, then they can leave a message. Our church calls on a crazy "private caller" thingy and leaves a message. We often check the numbers on the computer and discover that they are indeed scammers who have been caught previously by others. The bad thing about all the scam callers is that we have to get up and answer/look at the phone and they often call in the middle of my afternoon nap! :mad:

It helps if you have your phone registered on the "Do not call" list. However this does not totally eliminate calls, just thins them out some. Lol!
The worst ones are the auto dialer ones that used to call us on all 4 lines where I used to work. And of course you have to answer a business phone. We learned eventually that many of them had a message at the end of the spiel that if you press 2 (or whatever) they would remove your # from their list.

I'd be very careful with emails allegedly from Medicare, too. So many ways to scam us these days, it's difficult to trust anything you receive from any source.