The New York StateWide Senior Action Council (StateWide) has declared social engineering its “Medicare Fraud of the Month” for September.
In its Sept. 28 news release, StateWide defined social engineering as “the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes,” and added, “Scammers are using social engineering tactics, artificial intelligence, chatbots, and robocalls to commit Medicare fraud.”
Maria Alvarez, Executive Director for Statewide, said, “Scammers gather information from various resources, including data leaks, the Internet, and the dark Web. They use a hook to lure a potential victim, then establish a relationship with them to play the game of exploitation.
“Scammers will use robocalls and chatbots to make unsolicited calls to potential victims and ask general ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, such as ‘Do you have Medicare?’ This is an attempt to record a ‘yes’ that they use to authorize fraudulent products or services to Medicare. These tactics impact an individual’s medical identity and can be very dangerous.”
Since 2022, StateWide has been highlighting a “fraud of the month” to educate seniors on common ways Medicare fraud can be committed.
Image: istockphoto.com/Mykyta Dolmatov
