Mail, Email and Phone Fraud
Part of the reason the elderly are a target for scammers is because they can be easier to reach. While younger generations head off to work each day or are tied up with other commitments on nights and weekends, older folks just tend to have a little more time on their hands. That means they might be home in the middle of the day to answer a robocall or chat with a smooth-talking phone scammer. And these phone scammers are good. They sound official and often use fear (“It’s not safe to go without our medical coverage”) and urgency (“We won’t offer coverage at this rate ever again”) to get older folks to give out personal or financial information. The same goes for email and mail fraud. Fraudsters are banking on older folks not being as tech savvy and will use email as a way to get access to sensitive information. Or scammers will send “official” paperwork in the mail that looks legit but isn’t at all. A good rule of thumb here (and it might sound like a no-brainer by now) is: Don’t give anyone personal information over the phone, over email, in a mail-in envelope—nothing—if you don’t know what company they’re with and why they’re requesting this information. It’s that simple. And if a request is actually for real, then they should have no problem with you calling customer service or your personal account representative to confirm their request. It makes sense that as people age, their health care needs go up. This makes the elderly a prime target for health care fraud. Think about it like this: If you’re young and healthy, you’re probably not interacting that much with doctors, your health insurance company, or other health care-related services. But if you’re older or have a lot of health challenges, your personal, financial and medical information is getting passed around a lot. And unfortunately, that means an increased chance of your older loved ones’ information falling into the wrong hands. Keep a close eye on statements, insurance claims and medical bills. See a service you know mom or dad didn’t get? Call their provider and health insurance company ASAP to report the issue. Health Care Fraud
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online