Beware of medical phone calls scams
 

Got a call claiming Florida Blue was sending out important messages. Asked to verify my address after stating the first part of my address to me. So I smelled a scam caller and I immediately hung up. Beware of any caller asking for your personal information. Fort Lauderdale seems to be a common phone number for scammers or sales people for some reason.

Use a robocall blocker and report the number

I had a different, but definitely scam call. Female voice asked me if I had received my Medicare number for this year. I could hear a lot of people on the phones in the background and hung up.

People BE VERY CAREFUL when taking calls like this.

This is the first time I've heard of that.

How do I get a robocall blocker?

Good post.

This time of year especially we seniors need to be careful: open enrollment, SS increases, tax time approaching, etc. We're attractive targets for the unscrupulous.

Most of the time my caller ID indicates the call is from Fiorella Insurance (a real insurance company), but the numbers typically have the randomness of all the other robocalls (though most of the rest don't leave a message).

Don't just assume it's a scam and automatically block the call. If you HAVE Florida Blue insurance, then hang up and call the phone number on the back of your insurance card. Let them know you got a call from someone saying they're with Florida Blue, and that there was some kind of message they wanted to give you. Then answer the questions of that person YOU call...

and see what they say.

Florida Blue uses employees who work from home and have "disposable" cell phones for the purpose. So the call will usually be from a Florida phone number that your caller ID won't recognize. Even if it's legit.

It's important to be suspicious. But it's also important to either verify or prove your suspicions wrong when it comes to your health insurance. Just in case they really -do- have an important message for you.

dittos, plus this one wanted to sign me up for a flu shot! imagine that, lol :MOJE_whot:

Sound advice. If, contacted by anyone, seeking information. Do NOT give anything, including confirming your name. Call the company yourself. In terms of ID theft. We all use several medical services. A doctor's office, information security how secure is it?
Would you be advised of a breach?

If it’s an unknown number, just let it ring. Any legitimate caller will leave a message. Then you can decide if it warrants your attention.

ditto

Some folks (like myself) can't handle a ringing phone at all. I have to either answer or reject the call immediately. Especially those of us who wear digital hearing aids that are synced to our cell phones. The phone rings directly in our ears.

On Wednesday this insurance company called our number 8 times.
Thursday starting at 9am, 2 calls by 915am
I called the number, spoke to a person, Christine, requested no phone calls, do not call list.
So far, no calls. Fingers crossed.

so, thinking about this issue, which is a problem for everyone,

POLLING do posters have both a house number and a cell number?

If each of you has a cell number, why do you also have a house number?

If you have a house number, do you use the cable subscriber's translation services? so that you let all calls go to voice mail, and you read the message before deciding how to respond.

There isn't anything that has to be responded in under a minute, unless its a medical emergency. . . waiting for a doctor's call back while waiting for emergency services.

and yes, we have a VOIP, from the cable service, none of the house calls are for us legitimately, as all legitimate has our cell numbers, which we then use blocking services, and voice mail transcription services if we don't know the caller.