Consumer Alert Warns Against Medicare Telephone Scam

The Ohio Department of Insurance has issued a warning against telephone scammers posing as government representatives looking to steal the personal information of older adults. Government agencies such as the Social Security Administration, Medicare, and the Ohio Department of Insurance do not cold call Ohioans on Medicare. Anyone receiving one of these phone calls should immediately hang up.

The “New Medicare Card” scam consists of callers posing as employees of the Social Security Administration, Medicare, or the Ohio Department of Insurance. They say the person needs a new Medicare card or need to turn in their paper card for a plastic card and request the person’s personal information. There is no new plastic card or chip card in existence. This is a fraud and anyone receiving this call should not give any personal information and instead hang up the phone.

The Ohio Department of Insurance offers these tips on how Ohioans on Medicare can protect themselves:

• Never give personal information, including Medicare, Social Security, bank account, and credit card numbers, to anyone who contacts you unsolicited by telephone, email, text, or in person, such as door-to-door sales.
• Know that Medicare will never call you to sell anything, visit your home, or enroll you over the phone unless you called first.
• Keep in mind that Medicare or Medicare health plans will only call and request personal information if you are a plan member or you called and left a message.
• Ohioans who suspect or have been victimized by a Medicare scam should contact the Ohio Senior Medicare Patrol at 800-488-6070 or proseniors.org.

Ohioans with Medicare questions may contact the Ohio Department of Insurance’s Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program (OSHIIP) at 800-686-1578, oshiipmail@insurance.ohio.gov, and insurance.ohio.gov. OSHIIP is the state’s official Medicare educational and counseling program.