Americans Turning 65 Get 6-Month Scam Defense Plan as 73,000 Medicare Switches Raise Alarm
Updated
Updated · Fox News · May 19
Americans Turning 65 Get 6-Month Scam Defense Plan as 73,000 Medicare Switches Raise Alarm
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · May 19
A new month-by-month guide urges people nearing 65 to start protecting themselves six months before Medicare eligibility, when data brokers begin flagging birthdays and selling age-triggered profiles.
Those profiles can expose age, address, phone numbers and relatives' names to insurers, lead generators and scammers at the same time Medicare enrollment and Social Security decisions create urgency.
The plan's key steps are to remove personal data from broker sites, tell family to verify all benefit-related contacts, change weak security-question answers, and place free credit freezes with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
One month before enrollment, consumers are told to guard their Medicare Beneficiary Identifier, verify agents through a National Producer Number lookup, and confirm Social Security details only through ssa.gov or official phone lines.
The warning comes after CMS acted on more than 73,000 unauthorized Medicare plan switches in 2024, while the FTC reported over $76 million in government-impersonation scam losses in 2023.
As AI scams targeting seniors surge, why are some federal marketing protections being rolled back?
Is the long checklist of protective measures unfairly placing the burden of fraud prevention on seniors themselves?