Medicare's annual enrollment window opens Oct. 15 and closes Dec. 7 — seven weeks for people on Medicare to switch Part D drug coverage or a Medicare Advantage plan for the year that starts Jan. 1. Fraud advisories published ahead of the window, including ones circulating in local papers this month, describe the same setup: calls that appear to come from Medicare, an urgent reason to 'verify' something, and a request for a card number.
The script varies. Your plan is being discontinued. Your new card is in the mail. Your benefits will be cut unless you confirm your Medicare number now. Your drug coverage is expiring. Your bank account needs to be re-linked. The common thread is the ask, and the ask is always information that belongs on your card or in your bank account, not in the mouth of someone who called you.
What Medicare does — and does not do
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs the program, does not cold-call beneficiaries to sell plans, and it does not call to ask for a Medicare number, a bank account, or a credit card. The number on the red-white-and-blue card — the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier — is the key to billing the program. That is exactly why it is worth stealing.
Plans and licensed insurance agents do call, and that is legal. Under federal marketing rules, those callers have to say who they work for, have to make clear they are not from Medicare, cannot use the Medicare name or card in a way that misleads, and must record calls that lead to an enrollment. A caller who will not name a company, or who claims to be 'with Medicare,' has already told you what you need to know.
Why the fake calls land in September and October
Because the real mail is arriving at the same time. The annual notice of change that says a plan's premiums, tiers and networks are shifting for next year lands in September, and it genuinely does say the plan is changing. Advertising for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans ramps up through the fall. Scam calls hide inside that noise better than they would in March.
Spoofing makes the disguise cheap. Caller ID can display a federal exchange, a local area code, or the number of a plan you actually use, and nothing about the display proves anything about who is dialing.
What is actually changing for the new plan year
Shoppers this fall are comparing plans while the drug-pricing market keeps shifting. The first set of prices negotiated under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act took effect at the start of 2026, and a second round takes effect with the new plan year. The annual cap on what a beneficiary pays out of pocket for covered Part D drugs, which began in 2025, is still in place and is indexed each year.
None of that means premiums, deductibles and formularies hold still. A drug can move to a higher tier or off a plan's list between plan years, and plans are not required to keep the same pharmacy network. The useful comparison is not the premium alone; it is the premium plus the deductible plus what your specific prescriptions cost under that plan's current rules. Medicare's Plan Finder at medicare.gov does that math, and the 'Medicare & You' handbook mailed to households each fall lays out the basics.
What to do with a suspicious call
Hang up. Do not press a key to be removed from a list — that confirms a live number. Do not confirm your Medicare number, date of birth, bank account or card details to anyone who initiated the call, no matter what name appears on the screen.
If you want to check whether something is real, call Medicare directly at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), TTY 1-877-486-2048, which is staffed around the clock, or start at medicare.gov. Free, unbiased one-on-one counseling is available through your state's State Health Insurance Assistance Program; SHIP counselors do not sell plans.
Two things worth knowing before you shop. Enrollments require your consent — a signature or a recorded verbal authorization — so a plan change you never agreed to is not a paperwork error, it is a problem to report. And if you think you handed over your Medicare number, report it to 1-800-MEDICARE and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, then read your plan statements. Claims for equipment or services you never received are the tell that someone is billing under your name.
Government programs that send checks and cover care share a playbook with the callers who imitate them. Social Security's inspector general warned this month about offers that promise prizes in exchange for redirecting a direct deposit — the same move, pointed at a different account. The defense is also the same: the agency does not need you to hand over an account number to keep your benefits, and it will not call to demand one.