Medicare Scams: Fake Calls, Free Offers, and How to Protect Your Medicare Number

What a Medicare scam is after

Scammers use Medicare’s name in calls, home visits, ads and messages, and what they usually want is your Medicare number, sometimes along with other personal information or money. Medicare is the program being imitated, not the author. The number matters because a dishonest provider can use it to bill Medicare for equipment, tests or services you never received.

The HHS Office of Inspector General, which investigates fraud in Medicare, describes how that works in its guidance on telehealth and telemarketing schemes. Telemarketers collect information about a person’s health and insurance number. A company then pays a medical provider to sign orders for equipment, genetic tests or medications that are not needed, often without ever treating the patient, and the paperwork is used to send false claims to Medicare.

That is why Medicare.gov tells people to protect the Medicare number like a credit card and to give it only to health care providers, insurers or plans and their licensed agents, or people they trust who work with Medicare, such as the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP).

The damage often shows up later, on a statement, instead of as money leaving your account the same day, and that is the main difference from the other schemes in how impostor scams work.

The free braces, tests and supplies offer

The most common pitch offers something medical at no cost: a back or knee brace, a genetic or cancer screening test, a diabetic supply kit, a pain cream. The only thing you have to give is your Medicare number.

The HHS OIG is direct about this. It tells people to be suspicious of anyone who offers “free” or “no cost” Medicare items or services, such as orthotic braces for pain, genetic testing or prescription creams, and says that Medicare and the other federal health care programs will never call you to offer free items and services. They pay for care. They do not advertise it.

According to the OIG, these callers typically ask about your pain, your family’s history of cancer or the medications you take. The questions feel like a health check, but they are collecting what is needed to write an order in your name.

Sometimes the box arrives anyway. If you get braces, a testing kit or medications you did not order through your own doctor, the OIG’s advice is to refuse the delivery or return it to the sender, write down the sender’s name and the date, and report it. Reporting it gives investigators the name of the company behind the order.

A safe response to these calls is to hang up and ask your own doctor whether you need the item. The OIG also suggests asking for the caller’s name, number and company and saying you will call back, since a scammer will often hang up.

Fake plan agents during Open Enrollment

Medicare’s Open Enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7 each year. It is when people can join, drop or switch Medicare Advantage and drug plans, and it is also when calls and ads about plans increase. The FTC said in a September 28, 2026 alert that health insurance scams happen all year but pick up during Open Enrollment for Medicare and the Marketplace.

Medicare publishes marketing rules that make fake or pushy agents easier to spot. People representing Medicare plans are not allowed to:

• call you unless you are already a member of the plan or gave them permission to contact you;
• come to your home uninvited to sell anything;
• ask for your bank account or credit card number over the phone unless it is needed to process an enrollment request, and a quote never requires it;
• ask you for payment over the phone or online, since the plan must send you a bill;
• offer cash, or gifts worth more than $15, to get you to join;
• pressure you by saying you will lose coverage next year unless you join their plan;
• use confusing words or images, or misleading Medicare logos, in their ads.

The FTC’s alert adds a problem that starts before any call: scammers and dishonest businesses sometimes pay to appear at the top of search results, with web addresses and logos that imitate Medicare.gov. Type Medicare.gov yourself, or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), and look for the .gov ending.

Medicare.gov also advises not to join a health or drug plan over the phone unless you were the one who called and asked for help.

Calls that threaten your coverage

Some callers use fear instead of a free gift. They say your benefits will be canceled, that something is wrong with your card, or that a payment is needed to keep coverage. All of these lead to the same request: your Medicare number, your Social Security number or a payment.

Medicare.gov’s instruction is simple: if someone calls and asks for your information or for money, or threatens to cancel your health benefits, hang up and call 1-800-MEDICARE yourself. Medicare will never call you uninvited to ask for personal or private information, and it never sends people to your home to sell anything.

If you do need a replacement card, there is an official way to get one. You can print or order an official copy from your secure account on Medicare.gov, or order one by calling 1-800-MEDICARE, according to the Medicare card page. Nobody needs to call you first.

When Medicare can really call you

Medicare, or someone representing it, will only call and ask for personal information in a few limited situations. Medicare’s guide Protecting Yourself From Fraud lists them:

• a Medicare health or drug plan you already belong to can call you, and so can the agent who helped you join;
• a customer service representative from 1-800-MEDICARE can call you if you called and left a message, or if a representative told you someone would call back;
• if you filed a report of suspected fraud, someone representing Medicare may call to follow up.

If a call does not fit one of those, treat it as unverified. Even when it seems to fit, you can hang up and call your plan or 1-800-MEDICARE using the number on your card or statement. A real representative will not mind.

How to check your statements for services you never got

Your Medicare statements are where a stolen Medicare number shows up. Reading them is the best way to catch fraud that no phone call revealed.

If you have Original Medicare, you get a Medicare Summary Notice (MSN) every 6 months if you got any services or supplies in that period. It is not a bill. It lists everything providers billed to Medicare, what Medicare paid and the most you may owe. You can also get MSNs electronically, and a secure Medicare.gov account shows Original Medicare claims as soon as they are processed. If you have a Medicare Advantage or drug plan, the statement to check is the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) your plan sends.

Go through each line with this list:

• Dates. Compare each date with your calendar or a notebook of appointments. A visit on a day you were home or away is worth a call.
• Providers. Do you recognize every doctor, lab, supplier and clinic? A name you have never heard of is the most common sign.
• Equipment and supplies. Braces, wheelchairs, diabetic supplies or test kits you never received, or received without asking.
• Tests. Genetic, cancer or diagnostic tests that none of your doctors ordered.
• Repeats. The same service billed more than once, or more units than you got.

If something looks wrong, call the provider’s office first, since it may be a simple mistake. If the provider is unknown to you or the answer does not make sense, report it as described below. The HHS OIG specifically asks people to report MSNs or EOBs that show providers who never treated them or services they never received.

If you already gave out your Medicare number

Call 1-800-MEDICARE, tell them your number was given to someone you do not trust, and then keep watching your statements. Medicare.gov says to call if you think someone else is using your Medicare number.

1. Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), TTY 1-877-486-2048, and explain what happened: who called, what they offered and what you shared.
2. Refuse any delivery you did not order, or return it, and keep a note of the sender and date.
3. If you also gave your Social Security number, bank details or card number, call your bank or card issuer and go to IdentityTheft.gov. Medicare’s fraud guide points to the FTC’s identity theft hotline, 1-877-438-4338. How to report identity theft covers the full recovery.
4. Check your next MSN or EOB line by line, and your online Medicare account in the meantime.
5. Report the contact to HHS OIG, as described in the next section.

Older relatives often get these calls first. The family plan in how families can prepare for grandparent scams, agreeing ahead of time on who to call before sharing anything, works for Medicare calls too.

Where to report a Medicare scam

Report suspected Medicare fraud to 1-800-MEDICARE or online through Medicare.gov, and to the HHS Office of Inspector General. Each one can act on a different part.

• Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan or a Medicare drug plan, Medicare.gov says you can also call the Investigations Medicare Drug Integrity Contractor (I-MEDIC) at 1-877-772-3379.
• HHS Office of Inspector General hotline at 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477), TTY 1-800-377-4950, or the online form listed on the OIG’s contact page. This is where the OIG asks people to report unordered deliveries and statements with services never received.
• Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP). A program run through the Administration for Community Living that helps Medicare beneficiaries, families and caregivers prevent, detect and report health care fraud. Your state’s SMP can help you with questions about a statement or a call.
• Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov for the call, text or ad itself, especially when money or other personal information was involved.

When the person targeted is an older adult and someone close to them may be involved, elder financial abuse explains the added help available. For the order of reports when money was lost, see how to report a scam.

Medicare scam FAQ