How to Stop Medicare Scam Calls to Your Elderly Parent

Medicare scam calls are different from most phone fraud in one important way: the caller doesn't need to invent a fake emergency, because "Medicare" is already a subject your parent trusts and expects to hear from. That built-in trust is exactly what scammers exploit, and it's why Medicare-themed fraud is one of the most reported scam categories targeting older adults every year.

The Most Common Versions

• The new-card scam — a caller claims Medicare is issuing new plastic cards (or new Medicare numbers) and that your parent's coverage will be "deactivated" unless they verify their Medicare number, Social Security number, or bank details immediately.
• The free equipment scam — an offer for a "free" back brace, knee brace, or diabetic supplies, which is then billed to Medicare fraudulently using your parent's Medicare number, sometimes without any product ever arriving.
• The genetic testing scam — a free cancer or DNA screening kit, requesting a Medicare number to "process the claim," which is then used to bill Medicare for tests that were never medically ordered.
• The open enrollment scam — timed around Medicare's fall open enrollment window, a caller poses as an agent claiming your parent's current plan is ending and pressuring them to "re-enroll" over the phone by providing personal information.

The One Fact That Exposes Almost All of Them

Why Seniors Are the Target

Every Medicare beneficiary is, by definition, over 65 or living with a qualifying disability — which means a scammer doesn't need to guess who to call. Unlike scams that require research to find an elderly target, Medicare fraud can be run at massive volume against phone numbers that are already known to belong to the exact demographic being targeted. Combined with the genuine confusion many people feel around Medicare's actual rules — annual card reissues, enrollment periods, supplemental plans — there's a wide gap between what's real and what a scammer can plausibly claim, and that gap is where the fraud lives.

What to Do If a Call Already Happened

1. Do not call back any number the caller provided. If you want to verify anything, call Medicare directly at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), a number you look up yourself.
2. If your parent already gave out a Medicare number, call Medicare to report it and ask them to flag the account for review. Report the incident to the HHS Office of Inspector General at oig.hhs.gov or 1-800-HHS-TIPS.
3. File a report with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and with the FBI's IC3 at ic3.gov if any payment or bank information was shared.
4. Review upcoming Medicare Summary Notices or Explanation of Benefits statements for any equipment, testing, or service your parent doesn't recognize — that's how fraudulent billing usually surfaces after the fact.

Why "Just Tell Them Medicare Never Calls" Isn't Enough

It's genuinely useful advice, and worth saying once. But it asks your parent to correctly recall and apply a rule, under time pressure, from a caller trained to sound official — during open enrollment season, when unfamiliar calls about "your plan" are unusually plausible on their own. Prevention that depends entirely on your parent remembering a fact at the right moment, every time, for years, is a thinner safety net than it feels like when you're explaining it calmly at the kitchen table.

A More Reliable Layer

The most durable fix is the same one that works against every phone-based scam targeting your parent, Medicare-themed or otherwise: an unrecognized number shouldn't be able to reach your parent directly at all. HAPS routes any caller who isn't already on your parent's trusted list to you first — so a "Medicare" call from an unknown number reaches someone who can evaluate it clearly, rather than your parent alone, mid-call, being asked to make a snap decision about their coverage.