Posted on 08/23/2017 8:02:43 AM PDT by bgill
We have been gotten calls from someone claiming to be our health insurance company and demanding we settle up an over due payment. They are scamming. Please, whenever you get a call asking to settle a bill, do NOT give them any information. YOU return the call to a phone number you know is correct.
Just be careful, FRiends.
Do they leave a message with a call-back number? We pretty much let everything go to voice mail and call back only if its legit.
I don’t have a health insurance company.................Thanks to BO.............................
At this point I initiate calls to numbers I verify for any vendors.
I would not recommend returning a call to any number they give you.
There has been a scam running down here someone claiming to be from the IRS demanding payment of back taxes and fines and they will take your house if you don’t pay up immediately.
One elderly woman lost $20k to these bastards........................
Put the phone number into your browser & hit ‘enter’ (I use Bing) and see if anything comes up under 800notes or Mr. Number - there are other sites (OK Caller is another one), but these are the two best. I use a call blocker, but often check numbers that way - if they are scammers, there are usually other people reporting it on these two sites as a ‘spoofed’ number/scam.
The latest scam is for the crooks to use a number with your area code & first 3 numbers (exchange) so it looks like somebody local calling - people are much more apt to pick up the phone it looks local, even if they don’t know who is calling. We’ve been getting these calls on our land line and cell phones since June - last 4 digits change all the time so I’ve had to block these calls on our landline at the exchange level i.e. 123-456-####.
PS - best $100 I’ve ever spent ... seriously. I have elderly parents & the scammers were driving them nuts, plus one of them is in a mental state such that he should not be talking to these people (and if the phone rings, he IS answering it, can’t convince him otherwise) - this brought peace (no phone ringing) & peace of mind to our house:
http://digitone.com/Digitone%20Call%20Blocker.htm
This is the newest - we have the model before this one, the “Plus”.
I mess with them. Kept one guy holding for 2 hours only to LMAO into the phone and he started swearing at me. Hilarious.
“I would not recommend returning a call to any number they give you.”
Absolutely, never dial a return number as you’d be calling the scam number. This number is showing up on our ID as the insurance company so don’t go by that.
We are working with the powers that be in the insurance company and are reporting it to the cops and federal trade commission. Not that law enforcement will ever follow through.
We think it might have begun through our personal online health services account. You know, where it lists your visits and bills and services rendered. Anyway, we’ve cancelled that online account. Its just something for FRiends to think about.
You don't need health insurance because you're eating Michelle's healthy food?
“The latest scam is for the crooks to use a number with your area code & first 3 numbers (exchange)...i”
Us too. I even answered a couple but have grown wiser.
Ditto on 800Notes.com. They’re great. Just making the entry at 800Notes of “Called my landline, I didn’t answer, no message left.” is helpful even if you don’t know whether it’s fake or not. Starts a record of their calls.
That's how I determine if it's legit; I go to my resources I've received from the insurer or bank or whoever, and call independently. In a related vein, I'm pretty good at catching phishing e-mails, but I received one that purported to be from a bank where I actually have an account. I called the bank independently, and confirmed it was a fraud. However, it was a very good fake email and didn't have the usual "red flags."
I can’t afford the premiums of the Affordable Care Act.................
Sad thing is, the number had been reported on the internet as being a scam since Nov. 2015 and our insurance company never bothered to inform it’s customers or put a stop to it. Businesses just don’t care.
I’ve had calls from telemarketers — significantly, with Indian accents — claiming to represent a health insurer.
They made no demands on me — mainly because I didn’t give them a chance to make their pitch before hanging up.
I have my call blocker set to the “doomsday” setting or whatever it’s called, i.e. it comes from the factory preset to accept ALL calls (except the ones they specify - no valid number, unknown, etc.) & then you block what you don’t want. We were getting so many stray calls from out of state & other calls I couldn’t predict that I changed the factory setting to one that rejects all calls. I then put family numbers, our local area code, etc. on an ‘invited’ or ‘vip’ list so those calls would come through. This is the way to run the call blocker, IMO. I do check caller ID every day to make sure that someone we haven’t thought about (extended family, etc.) isn’t trying to call and being blocked. This has happened maybe a half dozen times in 2 years, usually when someone in the family has died & relatives we don’t hear from try to get in touch. This ‘reject all’ setting has taken care of all the ‘stray’ calls, but I still check them on 800notes or Mr. Number. I also keep a spreadsheet, just for the heck of it - saves me a ‘lookup’ if they’re already on it. So far, I’m over 500 individual numbers.
I use the ‘free’ ap, Truecaller, on my mobile phone. It catches many spams. However, it also ‘catches’ some numbers as spam that are from my health insurance. I suppose that is because the health insurance company probably hires call centers to do a lot their robot calling.
I recently found out that Tracfone (my cellular company) has its own ap [CallDetector] to weed out spam calls. I have not tried it yet.
Some spammers seem to find ways around the FED and STATE DO NOT CALL lists.
I got a call one Saturday morning not too long ago. The guy was very nice and said he was calling about an unpaid SoCalEdison bill.
I told him I pay online and take screen shots of my paid bills so I would check into it and get back to him.
His number on my caller ID screen turned out to be in Florida.
That’s rude and juvenile...................
I like it...........................
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