Medicare Card Phone Scam

[Chalkie]

There seems to be a new scam or resurrected old scam going around. Got a call last night the spouse answered thinking it was someone we knew as it was from the same area code as our phones (719). The wife always puts her phone on speaker as it helps her hear better so I could hear the call as well. It was a woman with a heavy accent saying she was with a Medicare Provider Group wanting to know if she had received a new Medicare Card in the last 2 months. If not, could my wife please provide some information to verify herself, starting with her name, so that a new one could be sent. At that point I jumped in as asked this woman to please say again who she was with again and got the same answer, a Medicare Provider Group. I told the woman that she obviously was not with our Medicare provider and we hung up.

I did a little lookup on this and it seems the idea is to get enough info that they can request a legitimate replacement card which is then used to submit fraudulent Medicare claims. I don't know if this was a one off, something with 719 numbers, or if it is something going around so I thought I would give a heads up.

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, Chalkie said:

Got a call last night the spouse answered thinking it was someone we knew as it was from the same area code as our phones (719). 

The scammers just clone a phone number to match your area code to make it look that way. One nice feature of cell phones is that we still have the area code where we were when we got our phones but no longer know or do business with anyone in that area code so that makes a sure sign that we don't want the call. 

[lappir]

Thanks for the update, is this on a Land Line or Cell phone for you? 

Before she passed, my Mom would get all kinds of calls on her "Land Line", so many in fact if if the Caller ID didn't say a name that she recognized she would let the answering machine take the calls. She would then sometimes play them for me if they happened to leave a message. Most of them didn't. 

So far I've not encountered many fraudulent calls. I don't answer my phone if one of my contacts doesn't show up on the screen most of the time, but with my recent change in phone numbers. I have had to answer at times if I've left a message for a return call and don't remember to enter the contact into the list. 

I also make sure I don't use the word "Yes" very often and will expand that to other affirmative words in the future turning it into a Question instead of an answer. 

Rod

[Kirk W]

12 minutes ago, lappir said:

I also make sure I don't use the word "Yes" very often and will expand that to other affirmative words

Yup,  rodger,  gotcha, okey-dokey, 

[k4rs]

I was recently the target of an attempted scam.  All contact with the scammer was via email.  After several exchanges the scammer said that the bank had made an error and issued a certified check for far more than the agreed amount.  They wanted me to deposit the check and refund the excess, a common scam.  I then replied that we should cancel the transaction.  The scammer then stated that they hoped I was an honorable person who would not take advantage of the mistake.  In my final email I told them I had made arrangements with the sheriff's department to hold the check for safe keeping and they could contact the sheriff for return of the check.  Of course I never received a check and heard no more from the scammer.

Safe Travels...

 

[Chalkie]

22 hours ago, lappir said:

Thanks for the update, is this on a Land Line or Cell phone for you? 

It was on a cell phone.

22 hours ago, Kirk W said:

The scammers just clone a phone number to match your area code to make it look that way. One nice feature of cell phones is that we still have the area code where we were when we got our phones but no longer know or do business with anyone in that area code so that makes a sure sign that we don't want the call. 

If only it was so easy. We lived in that area code for 30 years and still know a lot of folks there that are not all in our contacts. My difficulty is convincing the wife that if it does not come up as a known contact to just let it go to voicemail.

Edited May 8 by Chalkie

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, Chalkie said:

My difficulty is convincing the wife that if it does not come up as a known contact to just let it go to voicemail.

I have the same issue.   🙄

[lappir]

12 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

I have the same issue.   🙄

Not me. 

[Dutch_12078]

In years past, my wife and were pretty good about letting unknown calls go to voicemail. In the past year or so though, with all our recent medical issues, we're regularly receiving calls from doctors offices where the calling number is seldom the same due to multiple outbound lines and cell phone use. The best we can do until things settle down is to keep adding new numbers to our contact lists and quickly hanging up on the scammers/spammers.

[2gypsies]

35 minutes ago, Dutch_12078 said:

In years past, my wife and were pretty good about letting unknown calls go to voicemail. In the past year or so though, with all our recent medical issues, we're regularly receiving calls from doctors offices where the calling number is seldom the same due to multiple outbound lines and cell phone use. 

I think most of us get those kinds of calls from doctor's offices.  I still don't answer and they have always just left a message.  Haven't missed anything yet!  

[ms60ocb]

And is not just the phone, last night I received an Email from supposedly Comcast. I was on my cell phone and something looked suspicious, more than asking for bank info as my monthly payment was rejected by the bank. Viewing the email on computer, I could see the complete Email address which was weird. No problem marking as spam on two counts.

I pay a couple dollars a month for a call filter on my wife's phone. All calls not on her contact are silenced but are received as a silenced call. She can easily figure out the medical related calls not in her contact list. A lot of peace of mind.

Clay

[lappir]

13 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

I think most of us get those kinds of calls from doctor's offices.  I still don't answer and they have always just left a message.  Haven't missed anything yet!  

I agree. I hate it that some Dr.'s offices seem to think "Texting" is the way to communicate. I also dislike when they leave potentially HIPAA related information in a voice mail. 

Any business if calling should only leave the name of the person calling, the business name and the phone number. Anything else is useless unless it's a question that has already been established and a simple yes or no type answer is expected. 

Of course if they don't leave a message they don't get a call back. If it's a Dr.'s office I have no problem calling every couple hours if they haven't responded to a question from a prior call. 

Rod

[Chalkie]

2 hours ago, ms60ocb said:

I pay a couple dollars a month for a call filter on my wife's phone. All calls not on her contact are silenced but are received as a silenced call. She can easily figure out the medical related calls not in her contact list. A lot of peace of mind.

I love this idea! Could you please share more information about this filter? 

[sandsys]

18 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

In years past, my wife and were pretty good about letting unknown calls go to voicemail. In the past year or so though, with all our recent medical issues, we're regularly receiving calls from doctors offices where the calling number is seldom the same due to multiple outbound lines and cell phone use. The best we can do until things settle down is to keep adding new numbers to our contact lists and quickly hanging up on the scammers/spammers.

We're lucky in that all outgoing calls from all of our doctors show the same phone number so adding that number to my contact list was easy.

Linda

[ms60ocb]

21 hours ago, Chalkie said:

I love this idea! Could you please share more information about this filter? 

This Call Filter is offered by Verizon. I believe one other carrier offers a similar app.

Clay

[MizzMarzBar]

If you have an iPhone, go into Settings and "Phone" then activate "Silence Unknown Callers".  Any incoming call that's not from someone in your contact list will automatically go to voicemail and not even ring.  Legit callers leave a message, the ones that aren't can be blocked.  Easy peasy!

[Chalkie]

On 5/9/2024 at 12:39 PM, sandsys said:

We're lucky in that all outgoing calls from all of our doctors show the same phone number so adding that number to my contact list was easy.

Linda

That would be nice! Some calls come from a speciality clinic and it might have a name (not the clinic) and it turns out to be a doctor in that clinic. Others come with only a phone number and it is not always the same. 

[2gypsies]

On 5/9/2024 at 10:39 AM, sandsys said:

We're lucky in that all outgoing calls from all of our doctors show the same phone number so adding that number to my contact list was easy.

Linda

All of your doctors, labs, specialists have the same number?

[Ray,IN]

My mom was 93 when she fell for this scam. My daughter straightened it all out; what a mell of a hess.

[sandsys]

5 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

All of your doctors, labs, specialists have the same number?

Yes. They are all (internists, dermatologist, optician, ophthalmologist, optical, lab, gynecologist, and hospital) part of the Park Nicollet system except for our dentist. Park Nicollet has all their outgoing calls routed through the same phone number. So it is in my contacts as ParkNic outgoing. We don't know which doctor is calling until we answer, though.

Linda

[2gypsies]

2 hours ago, sandsys said:

Yes. They are all (internists, dermatologist, optician, ophthalmologist, optical, lab, gynecologist, and hospital) part of the Park Nicollet system except for our dentist. Park Nicollet has all their outgoing calls routed through the same phone number. So it is in my contacts as ParkNic outgoing. We don't know which doctor is calling until we answer, though.

Linda

Interesting way of doing it.

[Kirk W]

10 hours ago, sandsys said:

They are all (internists, dermatologist, optician, ophthalmologist, optical, lab, gynecologist, and hospital) part of the Park Nicollet system except for our dentist.

Park Nicollet Specialty Center

Specialty care

• Cardiac Electrophysiology
• Cardiology
• Ear, Nose & Throat (Otolaryngology)
• Neurology
• Optometry
• Pulmonary Medicine
• Radiology
• Sleep Medicine
• Surgery

[sandsys]

4 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Park Nicollet Specialty Center

Specialty care

• Cardiac Electrophysiology
• Cardiology
• Ear, Nose & Throat (Otolaryngology)
• Neurology
• Optometry
• Pulmonary Medicine
• Radiology
• Sleep Medicine
• Surgery

That's just one of the specialty centers. Park Nicollet has several buildings located all around the Minneapolis area. Dave's primary doctor is in Minnetonka. Mine is in St Louis Park. His dermatologist is in Wayzata. We sometimes go to Urgent Care in Plymouth or Maple Grove. But they all share the same outgoing phone number. Weird, I know but I like it.

Linda

[Chalkie]

22 hours ago, sandsys said:

But they all share the same outgoing phone number. Weird, I know but I like it.

I would love that! We are with the Baylor, Scott and White system and see doctors and visit clinics in Leander, Cedar Park and Round Round, TX, which are in seven different buildings and everything has different numbers.

[kb0zke]

I don't answer calls from unknown numbers unless I'm expecting it. My voicemail greeting is in a foreign language (not Spanish) and people who know me will leave a message, even if they don't understand what I said. The would-be scammers don't know what to do with it, so they hang up.