BBB Warns Of Potential Health Care Scams

With new health insurance exchanges due to open for business next month, the Better Business Bureau is warning consumers about the potential for fraud related to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Scammers are always looking for something to hang their schemes on that sounds believable or relevant. If there's a disaster like tornadoes or flooding, scammers often try to mimic well-known charities and seek donations to help with relief, for example, and scams related to sporting events like the Super Bowl also are common. With the new health care law in the news and causing confusion, scammers are latching on to this as well.

We expect that scammers will be calling consumers, claiming to be with the federal government and offering insurance cards in exchange for personal information.

Here's how it might work: You receive a call from someone claiming to be from the federal government. The scammer says that you have been selected to receive insurance cards under the new health care law. But before the card can be mailed, your bank account and Social Security numbers are required. Once the scammers get this information, they can sell it or use it to access your accounts.

If this happens, the BBB advises you to:

• Hang up the phone. If you get one of these calls, just hang up. You may be tempted to call back, but this will only give the scammer another opportunity to steal your information. Also, be sure not to press any buttons that the scammer instructs.

• Never give out personal information. Never give out your bank account numbers, date of birth, credit card number or Social Security number.
  

• Don’t rely on caller ID. Some scammers are able to display a company’s name or phone number on the caller ID screen. Don’t trust that the information you see is true.

• The government rarely communicates via phone calls. Most of the time, the government uses traditional postal mail to communicate with consumers. The government rarely calls, emails or texts, so you should view such contacts as suspect if they claim to represent the government.