This week in North and South Carolina, Medicare recipients began receiving their replacement cards. According to the Better Business Bureau of Coastal Carolina, with those cards have come scam phone calls.
The new scam targeting Medicare recipients involves a phone call.
But Medicare will not contact you via the telephone, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Medicare will only contact beneficiaries through the U.S. Mail.
So if you get the call, it’s not legitimate.
According to the Better Business Bureau, the reported scams are callers impersonating Medicare personnel and requesting Social Security numbers or bank account numbers. They are threatening to cancel Medicare benefits if the information is not given to them.
Medicare has made changes to make cards more secure. The card is still red, white and blue, but no longer includes a social security number. It also does not include gender or require a signature.