I wanted to pass on a scam phone call my husband received this morning.
The call was a local 631 phone number. The gentleman asked my husband if he received his new plastic Medicare card and the new Medicare book. My husband said no, and the caller verified his address with his last address, which was incorrect. My husband told him no, and the caller had our address here. My husband verified “Yes that is it.”
It turns out that Medicare is not doing new plastic cards at all. The part that we’re concerned about is that my husband said the word YES when asked to verify the address. This has been the trigger word that they are hoping to get from you…. The word ‘YES’
It didn’t sink in till after he hung up and did some research online.
Bottom line, the scammer is trying to record your ‘YES’ response.
It has been brought to our attention that instead of saying YES, we are to say “CORRECT”. They sometimes will even ask, “Can you hear me?” Our response should be, “I hear you.”
Do not say “YES, I HEAR YOU.”
*****
Important Lesson: With AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) becoming popular; scammers will have these and more tools.
- When you get a call you are not familiar with but could be your Doctor or something important, when answering no mater who they ask for or what, Say who is calling? If then you know of them you are good.
- If they say they are calling from Medicare, social security, the IRS, Microsoft, the police, hospital or the jail or any other big agency and you expect no call, hang up. REMEMBER I have stressed this numerous times that Medicare, Social Security, IRS, Microsoft et all will never ever call you. If you are still not convinced, ask for a call back number and they will hang up. You can always verify the call by calling the agency.
- If a hospital calls or the police to tell you a grandchild or or someone is injured or arrested, get the name of hospital or police department. Hang up and call back through there switchboard if the call is legitimate. Do not give money, credit cards or other information.
- IF IN DOUBT, DON’T ANSWER ANYTHING. JUST HANG UP.