Medicare is mailing new Medicare cards; beware of scammers trying to obtain personal information
To help protect members' identities, Medicare is in the process of mailing to members new Medicare cards that utilize a unique Medicare number. These new numbers are a change from the traditional Medicare cards that utilized members' Social Security Numbers as their identifiers.
The police department has received notice that telephone scammers have seized on this information and begun calling local residents pretending to be from Medicare and asking for residents' personal information in order to send them new cards. In order to educate the public on scam awareness, Medicare has published the following information on their website:
3 things to know
Your new card will automatically come to you. You don't need to do anything as long as your address is up to date. If you need to update your address, visit your My Social Security account.
Once you get your new Medicare card, destroy your old Medicare card and start using your new card right away.
Your new Medicare Number is a unique combination of numbers and letters. Your new number uses numbers 0 thru 9. The letters S, L, O, I, B, and Z are never used.
Watch out for scams
Medicare will never call you uninvited and ask you to give them personal or private information to get your new Medicare Number and card. Scam artists may try to get personal information (like your current Medicare Number) by contacting you about your new card.
If someone asks you for your information, for money, or threatens to cancel your health benefits if you don't share your personal information, hang up and call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
For further information on identity theft protection for Medicare enrollees, visit Medicare's Identity Theft Protection page.
