{"id":598057,"date":"2026-09-12T11:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/598057\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T11:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:38:27","slug":"medicare-scam-calls-and-emails-spark-warnings-to-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/598057\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicare scam calls and emails spark warnings to seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medicare scam calls and emails spark warnings to seniors<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/a><\/p>\n

Reports of Medicare scam calls and emails have surged in recent weeks, with dozens of viewers contacting the 8 On Your Side team daily about these incidents. <\/p>\n

Fake Medicare termination email emerges<\/p>\n

Some individuals have reported receiving dozens of scam calls a day, and this week, a new threat emerged in the form of an email claiming to be from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The email falsely states that the recipient\u2019s Medicare coverage has been terminated effective immediately and includes a link to “find out why” and outlines supposed next steps. <\/p>\n

Fortunately, the specific link in this email has been disabled, but experts warn that other emails with dangerous links could still appear. <\/p>\n

\u201cMedicare does not call people\u2014so just hang up the phone,\u201d said Brian Roche, 8 On Your Side consumer investigator. <\/p>\n

How to spot and handle the scam<\/p>\n

Roche explained that the email is designed to cause panic, which is exactly what scammers aim to achieve. He advised recipients to carefully examine the sender\u2019s email address, which in this case was \u201cdownload-space-mediacare at googale.com,\u201d a clear indication that it is not associated with CMS. Additionally, the email does not address recipients by their first and last names, another red flag. <\/p>\n

Most importantly, Roche emphasized that Medicare does not communicate via email if there is an issue with an account. Instead, it sends official letters. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get this email, don\u2019t panic; just delete it,\u201d Roche said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Medicare scam calls and emails spark warnings to seniors Reports of Medicare scam calls and emails have surged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[101383,231601,294737,134,527,294738,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-598057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-8-on-your-side","tag-centers-for-medicare-and-medicaid-services","tag-cmms","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-medicare-scam-calls","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}