Medicare phone scam targeting seniors on the rise
When a scammer calls, chances are, they’re impersonating Social Security, Medicare or the IRS.
GREENFIELD, Wis. – When a scammer calls, chances are, they’re impersonating Social Security, Medicare or the IRS. Those three agencies consistently rank in the top three in the Better Business Bureau’s list of phone impersonation scams.
Now, one of those scams is circulating again in southeast Wisconsin and senior citizens should be on alert.
Tony Lupo in Greenfield prefers his flip phone to a smartphone. He only uses the phone for making calls and texting.
It’s a mistake to assume those who prefer a simple device are also simple-minded, as a scammer targeting senior citizens found out when he called Lupo on Aug. 22.
“He had said, ‘Did you receive your Medicare insurance card?’” Lupo recalled. “I said, ‘Pardon me?’ and he said, ‘You know, that red, white and blue card.’”
There is no new Medicare card. There hasn’t been since 2018 when Medicare stopped using Social Security numbers as Medicare numbers and switched to randomly generated digits.
Yet, in that transition, a scam was born. It’s been coming in waves ever since.
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The Better Business Bureau (BBB) scam tracker is getting daily reports of Medicare scams.
“Medicare scams are on the uptick,” said Lisa Schiller with the BBB of Wisconsin.
The callers are after personal…
