The 5 Obamacare Scams to Avoid On to the scams. Be on your guard against sleazeballs pushing these five Obamacare fakes — and help keep your parents from being victims, too: 1. The nonexistent Obamacare card. The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning not to fall for the line that you need to get an Affordable Care Act insurance card in order to buy coverage. “The simple fact is there is no Affordable Care card. It’s a scam,” says Carrie A. Hurt, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. As you might expect, con artists pitching the cards say they need to get your personal information, such as your Social Security number or bank account, before they can send one. 2. The phony “government employee” phone call. As my colleague Caroline Mayer recently wrote, law enforcement officials say elderly Americans are prime targets for this scam. The Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs, she noted, said an older resident was tricked into providing her Social Security number and medical information by someone claiming to be from the federal government who wanted to “confirm her eligibility” for Obamacare. 3. Bogus Obamacare navigators. The Affordable Care Act created a designated breed of advisers known as navigators; they generally work at places like the United Way and local agencies and their job is to help the public sign up for coverage. But Kiplinger’s Kim Lankford recently wrote that fraudsters are calling and emailing posing as navigators. While claiming to steer you to the right coverage, they’re actually stealing your identity or selling phony health insurance. On top of that, they demand you pay a few hundred dollars for their services. 4. Obamacare websites that look real, but aren’t. Often after a natural disaster, websites pop up that appear to belong to well-known legitimate charities but actually aren’t. The same sort of thing is happening with Obamacare, except here, the sites are meant to look like ones from the insurance exchanges. 5. The Medicare scare tactic. AARP has received complaints from people over 65 who received frightening phone calls saying they’d lose their Medicare coverage unless they provided the caller with their Social Security number and other private information. Not true. --- How to Stay Safe Ignore any unsolicited calls or emails about Obamacare. For legitimate information concerning the Affordable Care Act and the health insurance exchanges, go to Healthcare.gov, the federal portal for Obamacare with links to the state exchanges, or call the federal toll-free hotline, 800-318-2596.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:08:02 +0000
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