Attention Cooper City Seniors

Identity thieves target Medicare recipients – again
By Bob LaMendola, Sun Sentinel
3:20 PM EST, December 10, 2010


Florida seniors are again getting phone calls from scammers trying to steal personal and financial information, this time by claiming a Medicare HMO owes them a refund.
The callers in the latest scheme claim to work for insurance giant Humana or its CarePlus subsidiary, and say they need the senior's birth date, Social Security, bank account and Medicare numbers to arrange the refund, Humana officials said.


Scammers typically use such information to take out credit or debit cards in the senior's name and run up big bills. It's unclear if any seniors have given the callers their personal details or had any money stolen, company spokesman Mitchell Lubitz said.
In one case, a Medicare recipient in Hialeah arranged for the caller to come to her house to pick up money for a Medicare payment but notified Humana and summoned police, who arrested the person on the spot, Lubitz said.


The callers do not work for the health plans, and officials try to track them, Lubitz said. Medicare forbids insurers from making sales calls to seniors unless they ask in advance for a call, so an HMO sales agent on the phone should be a red flag, Lubitz said.
"Seniors are not going to get unsolicited calls from a legitimate health plan. And any legitimate caller is certainly not going to ask for their personal details," Lubitz said. "It's emanating from South Florida so far. This is the time of year when seniors have to be extra careful."


Like most U.S. seniors, Florida's 3.3 million Medicare recipients are in the midst of signing up for 2011 coverage through Dec. 31. Most are getting letters and invitations to promotional signup events and may be talking to agents from HMOs and drug plans.
Scammers have stepped up phony cold calls to seniors in the past five years, since Medicare started offering prescription drug coverage through insurers. Medicare has issued warnings about the problems regularly, including twice this year.


The government urges seniors to be skeptical when someone asks for personal details and to give the information only to people they are sure about.

Bob LaMendola can be reached at blamendola@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4526.
Copyright © 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel