Description

Very friendly person with no discernible accent called and asked for me by name, claiming to be from United Healthcare which is my insurance company. As is usual for UHC, she asked me to authenticate myself to her by telling her my birth date. Since I'm a cranky old man, when United Healthcare, or anyone does this, I asked them to authenticate with me first. “I know phone numbers can be easily spoofed. How do I know you're actually from United Healthcare?" She seemed very sympathetic and said there are a lot of scams going around. She said to call the number on the back of my insurance card and ask to be connected to "Vanessa C. in the Social & Government Referral Department". I totally believed she was really from UHC, but I called anyway. UHC told me it was definitely a scam. Not only is there no such person, there is no such department. United Healthcare told me they are aware of the scam and that it has been happening to a lot of their members. I hope this encourages UHC to stop their practice of calling members and asking for private information without first authenticating themselves. For example, it would be so much better if, when they call, they give us an authentication code number. We could then call the phone number on the back of the insurance card, type in the code number, and be connected to the agent in a trustworthy way. Until that time... beware of calls claiming to be from United Healthcare!