The Better Business Bureau Launches "Scam Tracker" To Spot Illegal Online Schemes and Frauds
/The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has launched an interactive online tool called "Scam Tracker" to allow users to report potential fraudulent activity they have heard about, whether or not they are a victim of a scam.
Modern Healthcare reports that although the tool is not healthcare specific, due to Open Enrollment that started at the beginning of November, the tool has logged 100 possible scams related to healthcare in more than 7,000 incidents of fraud reported by consumers.
“Scammers will just pull key phrases from what's in the news, and send e-mails saying 'your Medicare records need to be updated' or 'There was a problem with your healthcare registration," explained Katherine Hutt, director of communications for the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
The BBB began piloting "Scam Tracker" last year and due to its effectiveness, they decided to roll it out on a much larger scale. During last year's open enrollment period, consumers would receive emails from people who claimed to be working for the federal government with verbiage citing "ACA" that would redirect people to malicious webpages to elicit private information.
The BBB also stated that they would be issuing "hot scam" alerts to keep consumers updated on various threats.
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