The Great Reconnection: Staying Ahead of Scammers

Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, so it’s important that we stay one step ahead. In this episode, get essential tips from Crystal Cuellar, Rachel Granetz and Val Guzman on how to protect yourself against scams and how to find help in case you witness abuse. Hear how AgeGuide’s funded partners and other community helpers can assist you.  

If you believe you have been a victim of abuse or scam, visit our website for more information: https://ageguide.org/fraud-assistance/ 

Resources  

Consumer.ftc.gov  

Reportfraud.ftc.gov 

Facebook: facebook.com/AgeGuide
Twitter: twitter.com/AgeGuide
Instagram: instagram.com/theageguidepodcast
Podcast: ageguide.org/the-age-guide-podcast
Website: ageguide.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hello, and welcome to the Age Guide, Perspectives on the Aging Journey. We are here to be your personal guide and enhance your quality of life on the road ahead. At Age Guide, it's our mission to be a vital resource and advocate for people as we age by providing thoughtful guidance, supportive services, and meaningful connections.

SPEAKER_01: 0:29

In this episode, we're going to continue our discussion on scams and bring more awareness to programs and advocates that work to protect older adults from scammers. Age Guide has been organizing scam awareness events throughout the communities we serve in partnership with state and federal programs, including the Adult Protective Services Program, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Illinois Senior Medicare Patrol Program. Together, we've been working towards building a more informed community. Now, we're bringing our scam awareness event to you. Listen in to learn more about how resources and connections in the community can help protect you against fraud and scams. Thank you for being here. So let's jump right in. Crystal, can you introduce yourself and tell us about the program that you work with?

SPEAKER_02: 1:25

Sure, my name is Crystal Quare and I'm an Adult Protective Service caseworker with Senior Services Associates in Aurora. My jurisdiction is Kane, Kendall and McHenry Counties. And what Adult Protective Services or APS is, it's governed by the Illinois Adult Protective Service Act and it's managed by the Illinois Department on Aging and the Regional Area Agency on Aging. So the purpose of the program is to provide intervention to adults over 60 years old and to individuals 18 to 59 with a disability who may be a victim of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or self-neglect. This would be at the hands of a caregiver, a family member, or a friend with a continuing relationship. Now, abuse is defined as knowing, intending, or a careless act that causes harm. And this could include physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, as well as financial exploitation, neglect, and self-neglect. I want to talk about some of the common risk factors of abuse, which are dementia, mental health, and substance abuse issues of the victim or the abuser, social isolation, and poor physical health. In addition, various types of abuse There are also some common signs to be on the lookout for, such as behavior changes, anxiety, depression, fear, increased isolation, sudden changes in bank accounts, trust or wills, and unpaid bills. There may be obvious physical signs, such as poor living conditions, like an hoarder situation, excessive clutter, an unkept appearance, bruises, bed sores, or a sudden weight loss. Furthermore, if you suspect abuse of an older adult or someone with a disability, then you can call the 24-hour abuse hotline at 866-800-1409, or you could also call any one of our five senior service locations, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4. Also, I want to remind, if you do make a report, you can be anonymous. There's only two ways that we could ever disclose who the reporter is, and that's through the written consent of the reporter or court order. Also, what happens after a report is made, an APS caseworker will attempt face-to-face contact with the victim to address the allegations. I do want to stress that even though APS will do everything we can to assist the victim, We have to remember that they are adults and they do have the right to self-determination. So if a victim can't either deny the allegations or refuse services, we must respect their rights. We are very client driven, so we can't do anything if the alleged victim does not give us consent. However, if the victim is open to assistance, APS will work with them to develop a case plan and interventions by offering case management, in-home services, such as caregiver or homemaker services, Meals on Wheels, Life Alert Button, and other valuable resources. The main goal being to prevent further abuse from occurring and making sure to help and improve the quality of life. There are some steps you can take to show your support as well. That includes learning the signs of abuse and reporting abuse, being involved with older loved ones to help prevention isolation, talking to friends and family members about abuse towards older adults to help raise awareness, and signing up to be a volunteer for older people in our community. What's more, there are several opportunities to give back by volunteering through Senior Services Associates. Our programs are free, such as our friendly visiting program, our free transportation program, And our retired senior volunteer program is always looking for volunteers in the Southern Cane and Kendall areas. So if you have any further questions or you can reach me directly, Crystal Cuellar with Senior Services Associates at 630-897-4035. And my extension is 106. Thank you,

SPEAKER_01: 6:03

Crystal. So next, we will hear from Rachel. So if you can go ahead and introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_03: 6:12

Sure. Thank you. Hi. My name is Rachel Granitz. I'm an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, which is the country's consumer protection agency. Thank you for having me here today. I'm based in the FTC's Midwest Regional Office, which is located in Chicago. And we bring law enforcement actions to stop scams and deceptive practices. And we also provide education to consumers and businesses throughout Illinois and the entire Midwest. So I am going to talk about a few scams that people should be aware of. how to protect yourself from scams, and then what to do if you think you have been scammed. Beginning with a few scams that people should be aware of, I'm going to talk about scams where someone pretends to be from a company or an agency that you trust. We call these imposter scams and they're unfortunately pretty common right now and they can take a few different forms. The first one that I'm going to talk about are scams from people pretending to be from your bank or financial institution. The way that these bank scams work is you may receive a call or a text out of the blue saying that they are your bank, your broker, or your investment advisor, and they have spotted fraudulent or criminal activity on one of your accounts. Another type of imposter scam that we're unfortunately seeing a lot and people should be aware of are people pretending to be from the government. One example is a call supposedly from the Social Security Administration, and the caller will say, Something like he is a Social Security Administration agent and has an urgent warning that your name and Social Security number are linked to serious crimes like money laundering or drug trafficking and that there is a warrant out for your arrest. The next step is usually for the scammer to ask you for your money, which they do in a few sneaky ways. They tell you that you should transfer your money to protect it. They may even say that they'll keep it safe for you if you withdraw it as cash and drop it off somewhere or even buy gold and give it to a courier. And these calls are really scary. And They are scams. The government will not call you out of the blue. And these calls are also taking the form of calls from people from my workplace, the Federal Trade Commission. Scammers will use the names of government agencies to try to gain your trust. They may even use the name of a Federal Trade Commission employee But what they are telling you will be a bunch of lies. No one from the FTC will threaten you with an arrest, call you to demand money, or promise you a prize that you have to pay to collect. Those are all things that we've heard about with people posing to be from the FTC as well as other government agencies. And at least for the FTC, our contact with consumers is generally by email or regular mail, and it's typically not out of the blue. We may send a consumer an email after they've reported fraud to us, but we are not making calls and encouraging people to act quickly or anything like that. As far as how people can protect themselves, there's a few things that we recommend. One is to block unwanted calls and text messages. And we have on our website, which is consumer.ftc.gov, we have a lot of articles about how to do things like block unwanted calls and texts, including instructions on how to download a call blocking app. We don't have a particular one that we recommend, but because it depends on your carrier and other details like that, but we do kind of go through how to use them and what to look for. You can also, if you receive an unwanted text message, you can copy it and forward it to 7726, which spells out spam. That's 7726. And that helps your wireless provider spot and block those messages in the future. Another thing that we recommend is just don't give out your personal or financial information in response to a request that you didn't expect. Honest organizations won't call, email, or text to ask for your personal information, like your social security number, your bank account, or your credit card numbers. Also, as I mentioned before, they won't ask you for the verification codes that you might get from a financial institution in a text or an email. If you do get an email or a text message from a company you do business with and you think that it's real, it's still best to not click on any links. Instead, contact them using a website you know is trustworthy, or you can look up their phone number. Don't call the number they gave you or the number from your caller ID. One Additional piece of advice that I think is really important is to resist the pressure to act immediately. An honest business will give you the time to make a decision. Anyone who pressures you to pay or give them personal information is a scammer. Another thing that might tip you off to the fact that you're interacting with a scammer is if They're giving you certain payment instructions. So never pay someone who insists that you can only pay with cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service, a payment app, or a gift card. And don't deposit a check and send money back to someone. Those are all payment methods that are harder to recover stolen funds from, which is why scammers use them. Another thing that we recommend is to stop and talk to someone you trust before you do anything else. Tell someone, a friend or a family member or a neighbor, what happened. Talking about it could help you realize it's a scam and you can also help other people avoid potential scams in the future. Now I'm going to talk about a few things to do if you think you've been scammed. The first one is to act quickly to try to get your money back. If you have paid a scammer, your money might be gone already, but no matter how you paid, it's always worth asking the company you use to send the money if there's a way to get it back. We also have resources on our website consumer.ftc.gov about what to do if you were scammed and specific instructions based on how you paid the scammer. Another thing that I would say that I always recommend is don't wait to reach out for help. I listened to your last podcast episode with the woman who experienced a scam which I thought was a very important perspective to hear. And she shared that she felt embarrassed, which is very common, but do not let shame get in the way of reporting what happened. It's not your fault. And scammers engage in a lot of practices to try to gain your trust. And if you do act quickly, you have a better chance of getting your money back or to help someone else avoid the same thing. Two more pieces of advice on what to do if you've been scammed. If you've given out personal information like your social security number, your credit card, bank, or financial information, you should go to identitytheft.gov. That's a website that the Federal Trade Commission operates and you can fill out a form, explaining what happened and what information you shared, and it will actually give you a customized plan on how to recover and protect your identity. Another thing you can do is to check your accounts for unauthorized charges or changes. The last thing that I would recommend is to Report a scam to us at the FTC. When you report a scam, we can use that information to build cases against the scammers, spot trends, educate the public, and share data about what is happening in your community. You don't have to experience the scam yourself, but if you have even just spotted one, you can also report that at the same place. It's at our website, which is reportfraud.ftc.gov. Last, just to leave you with two additional resources, you can learn more about consumer topics at the website I mentioned before, which is consumer.ftc.gov, or you can report fraud, scams, and bad business practices at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Thanks very much.

SPEAKER_01: 16:56

Thank you so much, Rachel, for joining us today. We really appreciate you taking the time to be here with us and sharing about how we can protect ourselves from scams. And now as we transition into our next segment, I want to talk about something that's become increasingly concerning, Medicare fraud. The Senior Medicare Patrol Program, or SMP for short, is a statewide initiative that seeks to educate and empower older adults on how to protect themselves, detect, and report Medicare fraud and abuse. We do that by organizing community outreach programs such as group presentations and also attending senior fairs, health fairs throughout the community. Medicare fraud is a huge issue. every year more than 60 billion dollars is lost to medicare fraud and abuse and those are all of our tax dollars being taken by these scammers they could also be using up your benefits then making them unavailable when you need them the most you can protect yourself by guarding your medicare number in the same way that you would your social security number or a credit card number because Once scammers have access to your Medicare number, they can then charge Medicare for services that you never receive. You can also review your Medicare summary notices for anything suspicious or that you don't recognize. These Medicare Summary Notices are something that you normally receive every three months or so that give you details about all of the doctor's appointments, all of the tests or procedures that you may have received in the past three months. Also, thoroughly review your billing notices that you receive from your doctor or a hospital to make sure that they are billing you for things correctly. Unfortunately, it happens pretty often that you might be billed for something incorrectly, whether it's using a wrong code or for something that you didn't actually get. And the only way you would catch that is by reviewing these billing statements. You are better off keeping your Medicare card at home instead of in your wallet or purse. I know you're often asked for your Medicare card whenever you go to a doctor or medical office, even though you've been there before. But if that still happens, you can always tell them that you'll call them back or give them the Medicare number at another time. So that way you don't have to always carry your card with you. And when you do notice something suspicious, when you review your Medicare summary notice or your billing statements, one good tip is that not everything is considered fraud. A lot of times things are just errors where you can call into the billing department of that particular provider. And for the most part, what usually happens is that they notice that error and then they fix it on their end. But if you do run into that issue where that provider is not responsive or they refuse to correct what could be an error or could be fraud, then in that case, yes, that's where you would definitely want to take it a step further and report that as potential Medicare fraud. To give you an idea of some of the common scams that are out there right now. One of the most recent revolves around catheter supplies, where people are being billed sometimes thousands of dollars for catheter supplies, whether they do need them or not. So that's another very good reason why you should review your Medicare summary notices to see if you are being charged more for these supplies. It could be that Medicare is being charged a lot more than they're supposed to for these catheter supplies. Another scam is people are being offered a new Medicare card. There is no new Medicare card. We'll start there. But the scammers are offering a new card that either has a chip or is a gold card. But it's really just a way for the scammers to get a hold of your Medicare number. If a new Medicare card ever has to be issued, that'll always be done by social security. Maybe one of the most common scams is about durable medical equipment fraud. That type of equipment are things like wheelchairs, walkers, different types of braces like knee braces, back braces, where you may get a call or see something on TV or on the internet that is offering these devices for free but in the example of something like a back brace or an e-brace if that isn't properly fitted to you it could be that even if you do receive these pieces of equipment that they're not actually fitted correctly to you and in some cases they may actually hurt you so it's always recommended even if you see something on TV or someone calls you. If you do need any type of equipment, it's usually best to go directly through your doctor because they can order these properly through Medicare. They can actually fit you correctly for these devices just so that you're not at risk of being injured by a device that doesn't actually fit you correctly. And one more example of a scam to be aware of is home health fraud. Home health is health services that are offered in the home, such as a nurse coming to see you in the home or a physical or occupational therapist. There are certain criteria that you have to meet in order to qualify for home health that Medicare covers. One is that you have to be considered homebound. So that means that you are not able to safely leave your home without assistance. You'll do also require a plan of care. That is a list of services that a doctor orders that you require. In this case, it's usually some type of skilled care from a medical professional. So because of those requirements, if you ever get a call offering you for free a nurse to come see you or free physical therapy in the home, that's most likely a scam because you do require these certain steps or these criteria to meet in order for you to qualify for Medicare to pay for these services. You can report Medicare scams by calling Illinois SMP at 1-800-699-9043.

SPEAKER_00: 24:21

Thank you for listening to The Age Guide Perspectives on the Aging Journey. We hope you learn something new on this podcast because we all have a stake in promoting a high quality of life for people on their aging journey. Age Guide coordinates and administers many services for older adults in Northeastern Illinois. We serve DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties. Our specially trained professionals are available to answer questions and connect you with local service providers and resources. If you are interested in these services or want to learn more, go to our website at hguide.org. Call our offices at 630-293-5990. Please follow our podcast so when we post our monthly podcast, you are notified on your streaming account. Thank you, and we will see you next time. On the Age Guide, perspectives on the aging journey.