The Colorado Division of Insurance notified us today of a new scam that is targeting Colorado health insurance consumers.
People have been getting phone calls from someone who claims to be with the “Colorado Insurance Commission” (there is no such agency – it’s called the Colorado Division of Insurance), telling the potential victim that his or her Colorado health insurance carrier has been taken over by the state. Then the caller says that the state sent the insured a check for $399 to refund copays, but that it was returned by the post office. The caller then offers to direct deposit the $399 into the insured’s bank account – and of course asks the person to provide bank account details in order to facilitate this.
As is pretty much always the case when someone calls and wants your bank account information over the phone, this is a scam. DO NOT GIVE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT INFO TO ANYONE WHO CALLS YOU, no matter how legitimate their claim might sound.
If you get a call like this, you can report it to local law enforcement. If you ever get a call from someone who wants your bank account information – for any reason at all – you can hang up and then call the company in question directly (for example, in this case you could just call your health insurance carrier and find out right away that no part of the caller’s statement is true). Once you’ve determined that the original call was a scam, report it to law enforcement.
The Colorado Division of Insurance wants consumers to be aware of this scam. And again, legitimate organizations don’t call people and ask for banking information over the phone. A general rule is that you shouldn’t give out that information to anyone unless you were the one who initiated the communication.
