Tomorrow, Tuesday October 1, 2013, the first stage of the new health care act kicks in. You can start shopping for policies on new insurance "marketplaces". There is going to be an enormous amount of confusion about this law, starting with whether you even need to buy a new policy or not. The federal government website, healthcare.gov, is the best place to start, but the bad guys have already figured out dozens of ways to scam people.
Variations on a Scheme
Bad guys are now sending spam and phishing emails with subjects like "We can get you a great deal right now," or "We can help you get signed up." There are also the scams that use the social engineering tactic 'prevent a negative consequence' to coerce an employee to give out personal information or even send money with subjects like "You are going to get in trouble if you don't sign up.", or "You will get fined by the Federal Government if you don't comply." There are even scams that use the guise of a (non-existent) 'New Health ID Card' or 'Discount Cards'.
An example is a scammer who will claim to be calling or sending a phishing email on behalf of Medicare and will ask for your Social Security number, driver’s license number, bank account number or credit card information for your new "National Insurance Card."
Tell your employees to delete any email related to this, and hang up the phone if they get a live cold call or a robo-call promoting a toll-free hotline promising they can be signed up right now. Especially if scammers ask for a wire transfer over the phone, hang up. Those are all Red Flags and these new marketplaces and exchanges are a hotbed for scams. It would not surprise me if completely fake health care exchange websites will be promoted in the coming days. Stay safe out there and STOP - LOOK - THINK before you click!
