A little while ago my mom told me, "Someone from Medicare is dropping off a new card for me."

As my mom has a bit of dementia, she has no info in her wallet EXCEPT I found an old photocopy of her old card which does have her SS# on it.

If they have her SS#, her name, birth date and address, how worried should I be?

The other scam I see they ask for bank info which she does not have.

ETA: I tried to narrow down what they asked or if she was prompted to give the info but she doesn't remember. She does have a lady that runs her trust and I sent her an email but other than that, I'm not sure what else I can do. SS offices are closed atm.

MIL was scammed out of Medicare number. Just report it to Medicare. You can add fraud alerts to her accounts and lock her credit.

If you are POA lock down all credit at the three main companies ASAP. Remember the passwords so they can be unlocked if needed.

Credit freezes are free to everyone now. Freeze her credit with Experian, Transunion, and Equifax. No third-party websites, just the three official ones. It is easy to do. Also report this to her local PD.

dsiets, are you regularly reviewing her financial accounts like banks, credit cards, etc?

You shouls also pull her credit report online for free.

She has a "trust" person that handles all her financials.
Mom no longer writes checks or accesses her bank anymore.
Instead she has a debit card that has minimal weekly funds put in for this exact reason. I checked that and it was fine as expected.

At this point I'm not even sure the maggot got mom's SS# but I'm going to pass your suggestions on to the Trust.
I filled out a report at the SSA online site.
I called Medicare and that person was useless.

Thanks all for your suggestions.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Call you Congressman. They can help with the issue you had with Medicare. I have done it in the past. Every office has someone who deals with Medicare exclusively.

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:
A little while ago my mom told me, "Someone from Medicare is dropping off a new card for me."

As my mom has a bit of dementia, she has no info in her wallet EXCEPT I found an old photocopy of her old card which does have her SS# on it.

If they have her SS#, her name, birth date and address, how worried should I be?

The other scam I see they ask for bank info which she does not have.

ETA: I tried to narrow down what they asked or if she was prompted to give the info but she doesn't remember. She does have a lady that runs her trust and I sent her an email but other than that, I'm not sure what else I can do. SS offices are closed atm.

As you are probably aware, Medicare no longer uses SS numbers as a claim number. All beneficiaries were issued new claim numbers. Your mother would have received a new Medicare card with a new claim number used by Medicare only. If the card has her SSN rather than a Medicare claim number, it's invalid. No need to contact Medicare to put a fraud alert on the Medicare side of this.

What concerns me most is that no one from Medicare "drops off" a Medicare card. Never. Doesn't happen. Replacement cards are always mailed. If a person told her that, 100% certain its a scammer or worse. Under no circumstances whatsoever should your mother open the door for this person. There are two possibilities. This is a scammer or worse. Or it is an overly aggressive Medicare supplement insurance salesman who is trying to sell a policy. I can tell you that any salesman who goes to a random persons house to sell a policy, that's a policy I wouldn't want to buy.

There are two ways to play this. If the person calls again, just tell your mother to hang up. If the person shows up and tries to talk his way into her house, obviously she shouldn't let him in, but I would consider calling the police. Don't know if your mother has it together enough to get the license plate, but that would be good.

The other way to play this might be too much for you and your Mom. Back when I was the manager of an SSA office, had the same situation. Elderly woman, but with no cognitive issues. Her son was a NJ State Trooper, and he spelled a rat. So the guy sets up an appointment to drop off the card. The Trooper was waiting. SSA OIG worked with the Trooper and sent an agent too. The guy was arrested for impersonating a federal employee as well as attempted identity theft and some other charges. He had a record including a theft from a private residence. So you could contact the OIG and see if they want to do anything with this. SSA OIG Telephone: 1-800-269-0271 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays.

I probably would not bother with the second option. Just make sure your mother doesn't agree to see this person, or allow him in if he shows up unannounced. If you go with option #1, dont bother to call. File an on-line report: https://oig.ssa.gov/contact/

UPDATE - I see you already filled out a report on line with SSA. Good. Although some of the information in my post is irrelevant to you at this point, I'll leave it posted in case the any of the info would be helpful to others.