Medicare is changing the way it formats its cards and scammers know it, so they're trying to trick folks into giving them their Medicare number.
"They really are pressing trying to get people to give you information so they can get the new card, “ says Bill and Evelyn Canady
"It needs to be treated like a credit card number, “ says Kathleen Pursell. She works with seniors daily and says the new Medicare cards have less information. "Medicare is changing the Medicare number. It will no longer be the social security number."
"Seniors are known to give their Medicare number out over the phone without realizing that is their social security number. “The new cards instead have a unique number.
"It's about 11 digits. All capital letters and numbers. It will no longer have a signature on the card."
You do not have to do anything to get the new card. "It's going to come directly in the mail from CMS-- Center's of Medicaid Services."
Yet Pursell says scammers are taking advantage of the situation. "Now where they're calling telling them there's a fee for the new card. Anywhere from 2.99 to 4.99." You don't have to do anything except wait for it to come.
Cards to folks in North Carolina are scheduled to be mailed out in the next month.