Door-to-door ObamaCare scammers descend on Birmingham

—

October 15, 2013

(Above: David Smitherman of the Better Business Bureau discusses ObamaCare scams on Fox 6)

David Smitherman of the Better Business Bureau told Fox 6’s Janice Rogers last week that ObamaCare scams are already rampant in the Magic City.

Scammers look at opportunities where there’s confusion, where people don’t really understand what perhaps the new law is bringing to them. … There’s plenty of confusion over this, and this a great opportunity for scammers to confuse you further to try and get into your pocketbook…

We’re getting reports even here in Birmingham of people going door-to-door, telling homeowners that they are with an insurance company or they are with Medicare and that they’re going to have to have an Affordable Care Act Card. And so, in order to get their new card they’ve got to give their Social Security number, their bank accounts, all these things that people need to protect with everything they have and we’ve gotten report of them just handing these out… It’s a perfect opportunity for your identity to be stolen, for your bank accounts to be… your payments to be re-routed.

It’s just so critical that people understand what the Affordable Care Act is, what it will do and what it won’t do, and you’re not going to get that information from strangers knocking on your door or calling you on the telephone. … [The federal government is not soliciting door-to-door for people to sign up for the Affordable Care Act], and they’re not going to… HealthCare.Gov is where you can go for real information…

Kassouf & Co., a Birmingham-based accounting firm, responded to the scam reports this morning with 6 tips to avoid ObamaCare identity theft:

1. Avoid clicking on links from unknown sources.
2. Only search for your healthcare options through healthcare.gov.
3. Do not give personal information to door-to-door Assistants or Navigators.
4. Apply online or in person only through the state sanctioned providers or brokers.
5. Ignore scare tactics used to get you to think you will have to serve prison time if you do not enroll.
6. Remember, if you already have insurance or are covered under Medicare, you do not need to apply for new coverage.