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WPCNR DICK TRACY’S SCAMSTOPPERS NOTEBOOK. By John F. Bailey April 7, 2025:
This morning’s switchboard at WPCNR lit up with the usual Monday morning calls: unsolicited blind telephone calls.
With an ominous twist:
Last week I got calls at least two or three a day offering me the possibility of cash off, and credit cards and savings eligibility if I had Medicare supplemental coverages A & B, or opted for them if I could give my Medicard number. I declined because I thought this was an obvious scam. I reported it to the Westchester County Board of Consumer Protection.
This morning, I received a call with a more chilling message. The caller told me “Your Medicare Card is being terminated.” I did not let them finish the spiel.
The reason I did so: once you are issued a Medicare Card it is not ever terminated unless there is a change issued by the Social Security agency itself. I dismissed the call, saying this is a scam. I reported this to the Consumer Bureau.
The Bureau said I had to report that call to Social Security. That is hard to do now since all offices of social security are under the possibility of being closed or consolidated or being accessible only by telephone, which already are jamming up.
Then just before noon–
Another call from someplace called “HomeLine” that was again a caller asking “Have you received your Medicare Card yet?” I said I could not answer that question. I then reported this one.
These dangerous escalation of social security fraud, which will frighten persons thinking their Medicare is being terminated and will most like fall for whatever procedure (telephone number to call) to answer a question to assure you are still eligible for the card.
Social Security will not contact you at your home for any reason according their official procedures, according to Lifelock
The all-new Social Security Agency being downsized and looked at for cuts in the newly recent Budget created to extend the debt ceiling deadline should be aware of this new exploitation of Medicare insecurities. Whoever is looking at cyber crime now should receive a headsup and eyeson alert.
If I got two of these faux Medicare calls in a space of 3 hours, vulnerable citizens may be taken in by them. The calls raise insecurity about “Oh My God, the administration is cancelling Medicare!” and they do anything asked of them in the call.
Or if you have recently applied for Medicare, and you get a call asking have you received your Medicare Card yet, and you just applied, you say “Oh My God, the government has screwed up again!”
Perhaps your calls if you cannot contact social security should be directed to Congressional and Senate members, while the new streamlined Social Security Department gets functioning smoothly.
Make no mistake, these are dumb scams but they are going to get more sophisticated and devious in the confusion over social security in the weeks and months ahead. The victims will be the elderly, the young, families, who will panic when they get these.
I did.
This is the “Anything Goes Age”
