Damn scammers
 

I received my Medicare Summary Notice today, and saw a slew of charges from Almaz Med. Supply in Woodside, NY for 120 "Alginate or other fiber gelling dressing".

I have had zero needs for that Aliginate dressing and I live in Oklahoma, and I have local doctors, none in NY.

So I called Medicare, and after less than 20 minutes, they saw even more fraudulent charges, and they will be sending me a new Medicare card and new number.

She said they see lots of scammers, usually in foreign countries, and the good news is I will not be billed for any of the scam. You tax dollars and mine were wasted paying Almaz Med, or they were scammed as well.

https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/lookupscam/945561

I am not the first one. Just search for them, and many pages of web links come up.

I wonder how many mega millions they scammed from our tax dollars. :(:(

fargin wankers!

There are too many sheißeheads out there stealing. I'd like them all to get their comeuppance. That's why I love the "Scammer Payback" youtube channel where the hackers go after the scammers.

Yep and it's only getting worse.

BTW: Most scammers have an IT support background and are based in India. Can you guess who trained them? :rolleyes:

It would seem to me with all the technology we have that the system would "flag" a suspicious transaction the same way that credit cards do.

Yep. And the very helpful lady that helped me on the phone, said Almaz Med. Supply is a known scammer. Untold millions have been scammed right from Medicare for nothing more than a outright scam. No treatments at all, just rake in money.

My credit card company will send me a text on unusual purchases. I have to reply with a text with a Y to get it to go through. I was in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and bought two cases of Yuengling Lager back when we could not get it in Oklahoma. It was all I could get in my 911 with all the clothes we packed. Anyway, I received a text if it was a legit purchase.

The same low life scammer tired it again! Billed to my former medicare number.

Azmet Med. Supply (718)570-3926
44 69th St. Bsmt, Woodsid, NY 11377-3926

They billed Medicare 5 times for 300 Intermittent urinary catheter, with insertion supplies Each one was for $3,033.00 for a total of $15,150.00

The good news is Medicare denied all of them, so no money loss, just 5 pages of paperwork mailed to me. Same company as last time. They need to just reject anything from them, and send the FBI over to wherever they are hardhearted, and arrest them. It will never happen, unfortunately. Since that old Medicare number is closed, they can't get money.

Another likely scenario is that someone fatfingered their number entering it, ending it up in yours.

Numbers should be algorithmically generated based on some other input so this shouldn't happen and end up being a valid number for someone else but ...

Thanks for the heads up, Glen.

I'm going to go back and review mine more closely now....

Hanlon's Razor

Don't attribute to malice, something that could be attributed to stupidity or carelessness.

Not a bad idea, and the one that I usually live my life by. But sometimes, scamming seems far more likely to me. In this case, who knows. Would a medicare request be for a single person or for a whole clinic? That sounded like a LOT of catheters.

Scammers never seem to give up. I get some sort of scam text or email nearly every day.

300 caths would be 10 per day for a month, which could well be reasonable. I know some folks who need caths can't sense needing the bathroom, so just tapping it every couple of hours seems sensible. Need input from a doc or a nurse more familiar with it and they would probably need to know why the person has to use a cath....

A 5 month supply at once does sound a bit off, but that also may be normal.

Simple question: who is the real crook? Almaz for trying to steal money -OR- Medicare for not putting a block on all their requests once they get a number fraud complaints?

ah, OK. I don't have any experience other than that I think when my dad had a heart attack he had one in for several days while he was in the hospital.

Medicare had to close my old number, and issue me a new one. The very same scammers that tried to bill me before, tried the old Medicare number. Since it was closed, they got nothing. The very same company in both instances billed Medicare for totally bogus never delivered services. Eff them. Likely they are foreign nationals and prosecution is impossible.

What's interesting is that you seem to be specifically targeted. I'm guessing that they've got your name, and some of your other identifying information that they are using to get your data to try to bill. I wonder if it's someone local to you or associated with some entity that you do business with that gives them access to your info.