Cheap Health Insurance Swindles

The news has been filled in recent days with stories of consumers who believed those bogus offers of cheap health insurance. Many of us receive those junk faxes or emails with glowing claims: "Health Insurance, dental, medical, pharmacy, includes doctor and hospital visits, ER, specialists, dental, vision, air ambulance, etc. only $149/month. All conditions accepted! Guaranteed issue!"

The faxes or emails never give the company name because the entire offer is a scam! Rather than actual coverage, these deals allegedly give discounts only from participating doctors, hospitals and pharmacies - which may not even be in your state! And they are percentage discounts, often 10% off doctor or hospital bills. Yet consumers foolishly believe they have real health insurance, often even cancelling their true medical insurance to "save money."

WARN YOUR EMPLOYEES! Do NOT believe the cheap health insurance offers they receive by email or fax! The low price is a dead giveaway that coverage is terrible!

NEXT: Want to save $2 per ticket to see the Walleye Hockey Team? You've heard all the buzz but have you visited the beautiful new Lucas County Arena yet? BBB Night at the Walleye is coming up fast! It is FRIDAY NIGHT, February 12TH, 7 pm. Tickets are $13 each, two bucks off regular price. Get your co-workers together and have a great fun night out. (We have some really neat restaurants around the arena; make an evening of it!) To order call Brenda at the BBB, (419) 578-6000 or 800-542-5539. Hurry!

NEXT: If you've received a text message or email allegedly from your bank telling you there is a problem with your account, contact your bank immediately. Do not follow the instructions in the text message.

US Bank and Wachovia cardholders are the latest to receive these messages aimed at securing cardholders' account numbers, expiration dates and personal identification numbers (PINs).

The scammers utilize all forms of media to dupe victims out of personal information. It's important to guard all financial and personal information unless you are 100% sure who is on the other end of the phone call.

Consumers have contacted several BBBs to tell them about a text message claiming that their account has been deactivated or frozen and requires action to reactivate it. The messages say: "Wachovia Alert Your card starting with 4828 has been deactivated. Please contact us at 804-XXX-XXXX." Another message states: "Customer issue, US Bank service (sic) frozen. Please call at 888-XXX-XXXX." Both numbers are currently out of service. Customers who dialed the telephone number were asked by an automated answering service to key-in their card number, expiration date and PIN.

Also, If you've received a text message saying you've won a Wal-Mart gift card, ignore the instructions in the text message; you haven't won anything! A consumer receives a text message that says, "Hi Mr. Smith. Thx 4 visiting our site. Call 877-XXX-XXXX to Claim Your FREE $200 Wal-Mart Gift Card Voucher!" Once the consumer calls the number they are asked for their debit or credit card information in order to pay $9.80 for shipping. Wal-Mart has told the BBB they are not involved in any type of text message marketing, nor would they require financial information for a gift card to be redeemed. In all Wal-Mart promotions, the only personal information that is collected is the address, name, and phone number.

One consumer says that after she divulged her debit card information, a $30 charge appeared on her statement that seems to be invalid. "They started calling us everyday at all hours harassing us. We had to cancel our card and have no idea where the $30 came from."

Do not divulge personal information to anyone who solicits information over the phone!

FINALLY: The BBB is now on TWITTER! We are sending out frequent tweets that you may find interesting. Just set up your account on Twitter (it's free) and seek BBB_Toledo.

Dick Eppstein, BBB

Cheap Health Insurance Swindles

The news has been filled in recent days with stories of consumers who believed those bogus offers of cheap health insurance. Many of us receive those junk faxes or emails with glowing claims: "Health Insurance, dental, medical, pharmacy, includes doctor and hospital visits, ER, specialists, dental, vision, air ambulance, etc. only $149/month. All conditions accepted! Guaranteed issue!"

The faxes or emails never give the company name because the entire offer is a scam! Rather than actual coverage, these deals allegedly give discounts only from participating doctors, hospitals and pharmacies - which may not even be in your state! And they are percentage discounts, often 10% off doctor or hospital bills. Yet consumers foolishly believe they have real health insurance, often even cancelling their true medical insurance to "save money."

WARN YOUR EMPLOYEES! Do NOT believe the cheap health insurance offers they receive by email or fax! The low price is a dead giveaway that coverage is terrible!

NEXT: If you've received a text message or email allegedly from your bank telling you there is a problem with your account, contact your bank immediately. Do not follow the instructions in the text message.

US Bank and Wachovia cardholders are the latest to receive these messages aimed at securing cardholders' account numbers, expiration dates and personal identification numbers (PINs).

The scammers utilize all forms of media to dupe victims out of personal information. It's important to guard all financial and personal information unless you are 100% sure who is on the other end of the phone call.

Consumers have contacted several BBBs to tell them about a text message claiming that their account has been deactivated or frozen and requires action to reactivate it. The messages say: "Wachovia Alert Your card starting with 4828 has been deactivated. Please contact us at 804-XXX-XXXX." Another message states: "Customer issue, US Bank service (sic) frozen. Please call at 888-XXX-XXXX." Both numbers are currently out of service. Customers who dialed the telephone number were asked by an automated answering service to key-in their card number, expiration date and PIN.

Also, If you've received a text message saying you've won a Wal-Mart gift card, ignore the instructions in the text message; you haven't won anything! A consumer receives a text message that says, "Hi Mr. Smith. Thx 4 visiting our site. Call 877-XXX-XXXX to Claim Your FREE $200 Wal-Mart Gift Card Voucher!" Once the consumer calls the number they are asked for their debit or credit card information in order to pay $9.80 for shipping. Wal-Mart has told the BBB they are not involved in any type of text message marketing, nor would they require financial information for a gift card to be redeemed. In all Wal-Mart promotions, the only personal information that is collected is the address, name, and phone number.

One consumer says that after she divulged her debit card information, a $30 charge appeared on her statement that seems to be invalid. "They started calling us everyday at all hours harassing us. We had to cancel our card and have no idea where the $30 came from."

Do not divulge personal information to anyone who solicits information over the phone!

FINALLY: The BBB is now on TWITTER! We are sending out frequent tweets that you may find interesting. Just set up your account on Twitter (it's free) and seek BBB_Toledo.

Dick Eppstein, BBB