This article is about how security breaches and hacking are putting seniors at risk for identity theft.
What I always tell my clients is if it doesn't come from my agency or the insurance carrier, throw the mail away, delete the email without opening or hang up the phone.
In many instances the word used by seniors who have fallen victim to identity theft is they were "confused". It makes sense, we have complicated everything in life. We have brokers who work with General Agencies who work with carriers who farm out work to third party administrators who the sell info out to "partnered vendors". So you have 3 possibly 5 entities that have this seniors Private Identifying Information (PII) and Private Health Information (PHI). This is unacceptable and is the reason why we see so many news articles regarding identity theft or breaching hacks. Too many people have access to this information and considering no system is hack-proof, these people and their information is constantly at risk.
We live in the computer age, this is how information will be stored and shared. We as brokers and advocates need to ensure our clients have the knowledge to understand how scamming works and how to defend themselves on an initial front line level.
For your elderly family, friends and neighbors:
1. Do Not Take Phone Calls From Unrecognized Sources. Medicare will not call you. A Carrier will rarely contact you and if they do the carrier name will in most instances be on the caller ID. No "Law Firm Representing CMS" will contact you.
2. If You Do Not Recognize an Email Address Do Not Open It. Unscrupulous brokers and third party marketing firms will use spam emails to gain permission to solicit and possibly move coverage simply by clicking on a misleading link. Just by clicking on what looks to be a legal, compliant link could destroy your current health coverage without your permission. Clicking on these links could also install malware on your computer which is also a headache to deal with. If you don't know the individual, just send it to the trash bin.
3. If the snail mail is not from your carrier and it it is not the Annual Election Period, throw it away. Filling out forms for prizes or gifts could leave you exposed to authorizing permission to contact or in a worst case scenario authorizing a plan change depending on the time of year and situation (PAAD eligible, etc.). Junk mail goes in the junk file.
If you want to learn more about this subject, drop us a message and we would be delighted to chat with you.
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