Several new Social Security scams are being used to obtain personal information from people as reported by the Detroit Free Press. Below we chronicle each of the new scams and how they are targeting individuals.
Medicare Cards
Social Security has been announcing that new Medicare cards are being sent out to millions of Americans, something scammers have latched on to and began contacting people informing they must pay for their new Medicare card. This obviously is not true as the Medicare cards issued are free of charge. The roll-out of new Medicare cards began in April and has already been completed in some states. The roll-out will continue until all 58 million Medicare beneficiaries receive their new cards by April of 2019. The government is taking this scam seriously even running TV commercials to warn about potential fraud and urging people with questions to go to the Medicare website.
Reactivating Your Social Security Number
Another scam is focusing on targeting seniors by phone to inform that their Social Security number has been suspended due to suspected fraudulent activity. To rectify this situation and reactive Social Security numbers, scammers request personal information, including banking information. A similar type of scam utilizes robocalls informing citizens their Social Security assets will be frozen unless they contact the scammers and provide identifying information.
Medicare Is Not Sending You $200
Even when we know something is too good to be true we still sometimes seek it out. That is the danger of another new scam where consumers have reported receiving calls from people who claim to be from Medicare claiming they are giving away $200 for being a good citizen. Obviously this sounds preposterous, but when someone is presented with free money, judgment can be clouded. To receive this free gift of $200 all that is needed is providing a bank account number.