Holyoke Police are warning the public about a variety of attempts of fraud involving medical insurance coverage. Lt. Jim Albert told 22News that the department has received numerous amounts of calls and complaints from residents about these schemes which they receive daily via mail, internet, telephone and even door-to-door. However, most of these situations do not require a police report.
Many of the latest issues reportedly involve the Affordable Care Act.
According to the National Consumers League there has been an increase in on-line scams linked to the Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred to as "Obamacare". Experts say the uptick in these scams is primarily due to the confusion consumers are encountering within the vast regulations of the Act.
Consumers should report all frauds to: www.fraud.com. There's an "Online Fraud Report". This reporting helps law enforcement to catalog the various scams and target scam artists world wide.
The Federal Department of Health and Human Services supports the " Health Insurance Marketplace " online, which provides information on various protections consumers can utilize especially for health care insurance coverage. They also operate the Consumer Call Center at 1-(800) 318-2596 (TTY users - 1-(855) 889-4325)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) instructs consumers to visit www.ftc.gov/idtheft to report Identity Theft. The FTC also operates an Identity Theft Hotline at 1 (877) 438-4338 (TTY users - 1 (866)653-4261).
If you find yourself the victim of on-line scams or frauds you should report the crime to the National White Collar Crime Center.
Source: NBCNews
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