Thursday, April 05, 2018
The North Carolina State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (which administers the plan), are reporting that some of their members are receiving phone calls from scammers. The callers identify themselves as representatives of BCBSNC or the Health Plan, and ask for confidential information including Social Security numbers. The scammers have manipulated or “spoofed” Caller ID, so some of the calls appear to be coming from a BCBSNC telephone number.If you receive one of these calls, hang up. Then call the number on the back of your BCBSNC/Health Plan ID card to report the scam. If you were deceived into surrendering your private information by one of these scammers, consider getting a free security freeze on your credit files, to prevent crooks from opening new accounts using your stolen information. In fact, security freezes are recommended for all consumers because they help to protect against fraud stemming from the data breaches that are being reported by many companies. And remember, a legitimate caller from BCBSNC or the Health Plan will never ask for your full SSN over the phone.If you are contacted by a scammer, you can report it to the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or by filing a complaint online. Get tips on how to spot and avoid scams at ncdoj.gov.