Senior calls in alert on medical card scam

After receiving three scam calls, senior Claraellen Anderson of Kalispell got mad as heck and decided she had to do something.

“I would hate to think that someone got scammed and had their account wiped out, and I could have spoken up,” she said.

Anderson said the three calls came in over two days. The pitch was a free medical card that she would receive in the mail.

First the caller asked to confirm her name and phone number. She felt comfortable doing that, since they had the information before calling.

When they asked for her bank account number, Anderson knew this was the type of personal information she should never give out.

“When they asked for my bank account number, I smelled a rat,” she said.

“They said they needed to have that number on the medical card.”

To avoid a direct confrontation, she told the caller she didn’t have access to that number at the moment. As with most fraud encounters, the caller quickly hung up when no information was forthcoming.

An Internet search turned up reports of similar free medical care scams across many states. A story from Texas reported that telemarketers say, “All citizens on Medicare should be using these ‘free cards,” and that, “They don’t have to pay expensive medical costs.”

After call number three with the same pitch, Anderson, a former teacher, worried that some senior who was not up to date on these tactics might get lured into the scammers’ trap. She spent an hour and a half on the telephone trying to report the fraud calls, first with the Kalispell Police Department and then with state agencies.

She finally located the Consumer Protection Office, a division of the Department of Justice in Helena. Anderson was able put her experience on the record at this office by calling (800) 481-6896.

“They said there’s not much we can do other than alert people that this scam is going on,” she said.

A Consumer Protection Office employee told Anderson this was an old scam. She learned that if she had given her bank account number, the caller would have continued requesting more information, such as her Social Security number.

Anderson said she was advised just not to answer when the caller ID shows private name and private number, but she said those calls have come in from people or organizations that she knows. Instead of ignoring the call, she answered and used her good sense to never disclose personal information to an unsolicited caller.

During her research, she also found the Better Business Bureau’s number, (800) 481-6896. Anderson was satisfied that the scam had been reported, so she didn’t call that organization.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.