One of the scams going around right now.
The “Medicare” caller who wants your number
Fig. 1.First in the letter: issue 1, the week of Oct 29 to Nov 4, 2026.Last updated: Nov 5, 2026.
One of the scams going around right now.
Fig. 1.First in the letter: issue 1, the week of Oct 29 to Nov 4, 2026.Last updated: Nov 5, 2026.
Issue 1, the week of Oct 29 to Nov 4, 2026. Read the whole issue.
How it’s done: A caller says a grocery and health allowance is waiting and goes to somebody else unless you stay on the line, or that your Medicare file was flagged for a missing status check that will hold up your 2027 enrollment. Both versions keep coming back to whether you have Parts A and B (Nomorobo’s transcripts, Oct 28).
Why it’s first: Nomorobo, which sells call blocking, says its test lines logged 28,262 Medicare-related calls in 3 days, Oct 16 to 18, and some may be sales calls rather than scams. Source: Nomorobo (a call-blocking company), Oct 28, 2026.
The tell: Medicare’s own fraud page: “Medicare will never call you to sell you anything or visit you at your home.” (medicare.gov, checked Nov 5)
One thing to do: Hang up, type medicare.gov yourself, and use the number you find there.
The email printed the phone number. A number can change after we check it, so this page sends you to the owner’s own site for it instead.
None so far. If anything here turns out wrong, the fix goes on this page with the date we made it, and on the corrections page as well.
Text it or email it to whoever in the family gets these calls. A new message opens with the page address already in it, and you choose who gets it and what it says.
Or copy the address by hand:
sameoldtrick.com/
Typed in, it opens this same page, and typing an address yourself is the habit we keep recommending anyway.
Same Old Trick is a free weekly email about the scams going around: three a week, who each one pretends to be, the tell, one thing to do, and three practice messages.
The first thing you get is a page to keep by the phone.
Type your address below, then click the link in the email we send. Nobody can do that click but you.
Your own address, nobody else’s. A confirmation email from Same Old Trick comes first, and nothing arrives until you click the link in it. It’s free, every issue has an unsubscribe link, and your address is held by Kit, the company that sends the email for us, and nobody else.
Signing up a parent? They do that part themselves, at sameoldtrick.com/mom, with their own address.