Tag: Scams

The $600 Billion Swindle

Before I begin I want to wish all my Dads out there…..

Happy Father’s Day!

I am an old fart and retired and most people I know are retired or close to retirement and I keep a watch on what is going on with Medicare and the insurance giants.

I have been trying to warn my readers of the dangers and the scams run under the guise of “Medicare Advantage” tag.

Since last year I have been warning my readers that are considering one of these ‘plans’ to beware and why….

Medicare Advantage Plans

A new analysis of these plans illustrates just how bad and how deep these swindles go.

A new academic analysis published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine details the enormous sums that privatized Medicare Advantage plans have cost U.S. taxpayers in recent years and calls for the abolition of the program, which has been massively profitable for the insurance giants that dominate it.

Citing the nonpartisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the paper notes that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have overcharged the federal government to the tune of $612 billion since 2007—and $82 billion last year alone.

MA plans—now used by more than half of the eligible Medicare population—utilize a range of tactics to reap larger payments from the federal government, which provides insurers a lump sum for each Medicare Advantage patient. The size of the payment depends on the enrollee’s health, which MA plans are notorious for portraying as worse than it is in order to receive heftier government payments.

“Paradoxically, despite those overpayments, MA plans spend 9% less on medical services than [fee-for-service] Medicare spends for comparable enrollees,” reads the new study. “If MA plans pay for less care, where do the overpayments go? Some pay for supplementary benefits, although plans do not disclose how much they spend on them, and MA enrollees do not get significantly more dental care or incur lower out-of-pocket dental costs than those in FFS Medicare. Instead, overhead and profit eats up the lion’s share.”

The study’s authors estimate that MA plans’ overhead from 2007 to 2024 was $592 billion, which is “equivalent to 97% of taxpayers’ $612 billion overpayments to them during that period.”

Dr. Adam Gaffney, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the new study, said in a statement that “Medicare Advantage is a bad deal for taxpayers.”

“Money that could be used to eliminate all copayments or shore up Medicare’s Trust Fund is instead lining insurers’ pockets,” said Gaffney. “And the private insurers keep Medicare Advantage enrollees from getting needed care by erecting bureaucratic hurdles like prior authorizations and payment denials.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/medicare-advantage-cost

Please read all the information if you want to save your cash….do not listen to the hype….ask questions and arm yourself with facts not promises.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I hope the Dads have a great day and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–08Mar23

Scamming our seniors.

My regular visitors know that since I am an old fart I try to keep an eye on the scams and policies that will effect most people as they retire.

The insurance industry is getting worse by the year….they have been scamming seniors for decades and it just gets worse with the passing of time.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a report Wednesday highlighting the splashy incentives—from luxury vacations to cash bonuses—that private insurance companies offer agents and brokers for enrolling seniors in potentially higher-cost Medigap plans.

Medigap is federally regulated supplemental health insurance offered by for-profit companies such as UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and Aetna.

According to Warren, the Medigap marketplace is rife with “incentive trips and other perks for brokers and agents” who—in pursuit of such rewards—could be motivated to “push seniors into the most expensive Medigap plans, regardless of whether those plans meet their needs.”

The senator found that the estimated 32 private companies that entice agents with vacations and other incentives to boost Medigap sales provided the supplemental insurance to around 6.6 million people in the U.S. in 2021 and raked in nearly $16 billion in premiums from beneficiaries that year.

Warren acknowledged that her report “may underestimate the prevalence of incentives and rewards in the Medigap insurance industry” given that insurers and third-party companies are often not transparent about their incentive practices.

In a statement, Warren lamented the weak federal and state regulations that are giving insurance giants “free rein to scam millions of seniors in Medigap, offering agents lavish vacations to steer unknowing beneficiaries into more expensive plans.”

“Regulators must act to make sure seniors aren’t getting fleeced,” said Warren, who noted that around 40% of Medigap enrollees had less than $40,000 in annual income in 2018.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/warren-insurance-medigap-scam

I have always thought that these so-called “advantage’ plans were nothing more than a scam to screw seniors out of what money they have….these insurance toads are unfeeling ass wipes…..and that includes the senior’s best friend, AARP….which pushes their own brand of ‘advantage’ policies.

Keep an eye on your finances there are slugs that will come for your money.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Scams On Us Old Farts

It is Sunday and on the weekends I try to be an FYI blog….since I am one of those old farts and many of my visitors are senior citizens or close to it I feel that I need to warn them about scams that target us older people.

I have been contacted by someone claiming that my SS account has been suspended….it is a scam and I did not fall for it…….there are others and this article pin points some of the most common….

Many scams are universal, from the IRS imposter who calls and threatens to arrest you if you don’t pay your taxes, to phishing emails that trick you into sending sensitive data or downloading malware onto your computer. But some types of fraud target older adults specifically or affect them disproportionately. Older adults may fall for certain scams because they are in the habit of answering calls from unknown callers, open junk mail rather than tossing it in the trash, or are not as practiced with the privacy settings on social media as younger generations.

“Older adults make great targets because they have accumulated assets over time and are living off their savings,” says Larry Santucci, who coauthored a report about elder financial victimization for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. “Some are also very lonely or socially isolated, which makes them susceptible to exploitation.” Moreover, cognitive decline—which hampers your ability to gauge risk or sense that something is awry—starts seeping in as early as your 50s. It may lead to diminished financial capacity, compromising your ability to handle your own money.

Here are six scams that you and your parents should watch out for.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/6-scams-that-prey-on-the-elderly\

Please be careful when you are contacted by any of these scams…..DO NOT give them any information until you can verify they are legit.

Some times it is difficult living in these times as a senior….you really do not need some d/bag trying to relieve you of your cash.

BE CAREFUL!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCAM Alert!

Us old farts are always trying to be scammed by morons….attempting to access your information so they can screw us out of what little we have.

Recently I got a phone call and the prompt was

“Hello citizen….there is a problem with your social security account and all benefits have been frozen….if you would like more information then…..” and that is where I hang up.

I checked with the SS office and they said that if there was a problem then we would notify you by mail and use your name…..

This scammer tried three times using three different local numbers…..

I gave the numbers to the SS person and hopefully they can track these parasite down and punish them massively.

So please be careful…these asswads are lurking and looking for any chance to slip the screws to you….especially if you are elderly….scammers think we are idiots and that we would worry about our benefits to the point that we would give them a chance to crap on us.

Do not give these people a chance to do the worst to you and your accounts.

Any attempts to access your accounts please let the authorities know immediately….for they will try again.

Hopefully the FCC can get this pack of toads…..

Under a bill Congress passed in 2019, spammers can be fined up to $10,000 for a single robocall. The fine handed out to two Texas-based telemarketers Wednesday worked out to less than 5 cents per robocall, but it was still a new record for the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC says John Spiller and Jakob Mears, who operated under business names including Rising Eagle and JSquared Telecom, have been fined a record $225 million for sending out around a billion automated calls falsely offering affordable short-term health insurance plans from major companies, KHOU reports.

Officials say Spiller admitted sending out millions of calls a day and said he targeted people registered on Do Not Call lists because he thought it would be more profitable. He also admitted using spoofed numbers, the FCC says. The fine is part of a wider FCC effort to crack down on robocalls, CNBC reports. Officials announced Wednesday that a new Robocall Response Team has been formed with 51 FCC employees who will coordinate anti-robocall efforts with other federal agencies.

BE CAREFUL!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Don’t Answer That Phone

My weekend and I would like to pass on a FYI piece for my readers.

I remember the days when there was no caller ID and we had to answer the phone whenever it rang….then ID showed and we could screen our calls and make the decision on whether to answer or not….

Now we all have a smartphone and we are always getting some number appear that we do not recognize, right?  Do you answer even those calls?

Me?  I ignore anything I do not recognize.

I realize that we are depending on our smart phones more and more these day……but……You might better re-think answering those calls….why?

If you get a phone call from an unfamiliar number and someone asks whether you can hear them, you may want to just hang up. The Better Business Bureau is warning people about the “Can You Hear Me?” scam, in which people are recorded answering “yes,” WDTN reports. That recording can be used to sign victims up for a product or service, and the scammers then demand to be paid, using the recorded “yes” as supposed confirmation of an agreement. “I know that people think it’s impolite to hang up, but it’s a good strategy,” a consumer protection expert tells CBS. Another option? Don’t answer the phone for unfamiliar numbers at all—scammers don’t often leave voicemails.

The BBB’s official recommendation: If you get any unsolicited robocalls, hang up. If you’re on the Do Not Call list and you still end up on the phone with a company asking any questions (other examples: “Are you the homeowner?” or “Do you pay the household telephone bill?”), don’t say “yes,” “sure,” or “OK,” and don’t press any buttons—even if a recorded message is telling you to press a button to be placed on the Do Not Call list. If in fact it is a scammer on the line, any sort of response, whether verbal or a button press, will just confirm your phone number is indeed active. If you think you’ve been targeted, write down the phone number and file a scam report with the BBB’s Scam Tracker and the FTC’s Do Not Call list—and check your credit card and other accounts for unwanted charges.

Fore warned is fore armed…..

Be safe and be well…..chuq

Nail The “Robber Barons”!

Thanx to Clinton and his DLC a/holes we are stuck in this vicious cycle of banks dictating to the society……..the repeal of Glass-Steagall made it possible for banks to gamble with others money and not face any charges for their complicity in the fraudulent practices of a few big banks in the schemes……

Oh yeah the Obama admin passed a reform bill and some toothless regulations to make us think that we are safe to return to the “markets”……I disagree….I believe that this will happen again and the banks will be more covert in their operations…..but at least the present admin is trying to do something….JP Morgan has been hit with a little fine and Bank Of America as well….but they continue their fraudulent practices……

The FDIC has tried to change stuff………

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp sued 16 of the world’s largest banks on Friday, accusing them of cheating dozens of other now defunct banks by manipulating the Libor interest rate.

The global financial institutions broke certain swaps contracts they had entered into with the now-closed banks, by separately colluding to rig the Libor rate to which the contracts were tied, the FDIC said.

They have also been sued by investors and others who claim they lost money due to the manipulation. A federal judge last March dismissed many of those claims that were based on antitrust law, but has yet to rule on cases that rely on the “breach of contract” theory used by the FDIC.

The lawsuit also accused the British Bankers’ Association, the U.K. trade organization that during the period at issue administered Libor, of participating in the scheme.

The BBA had said it independently monitored the banks’ Libor submissions, and represented that Libor was a “transparent” benchmark, even though it knew those statements were false, the FDIC said. A representative of the BBA declined comment.

The banks named as defendants include Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings PLC, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC.

Other defendants in the lawsuit are Rabobank, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Societe Generale, Norinchukin Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and WestLB AG.

Everybody wants me to be responsible for the stuff I do then corporations, who are people now, should be held to the standard that the rest of us are held……..if they commit a crime it is time for jail time and total restitution.

Is Papa John Just Cheesy?

I like a good pizza and for years I preferred Papa john’s over Pizza Hut and Dominos…..I just like their pizza…..well all that good feelings was crushed last year when good ol boy John was caught bitching about Obamacare and that it would cost 12 cents per pizza more to furnish health care to his employees……that just hit me wrong after hearing how much this a/hole spends for ads on the Super Bowl and he bitches about 12 cents…..personally, he can add the 12 cents to my pizza if it would help his employees out….but since I stopped using Papa’s it is a moot point…..but there is more about good old honest Papa John and his pizzas….

Source:Yahoo

Many fast food chains, like McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Subway, do voluntarily provide them, in part for indemnity against lawsuits and in part because they realize some of their customers actually want to know what they’re eating.

But not Papa John’s. They’ve decided it’s better to keep their ingredients a secret. You won’t find any information about them on either the company’s website or in stores. Charlie, the friendly and accommodating employee who took my order for a small cheese pizza at my local Papa John’s in Boulder, Colo., told me that he didn’t know what the pizza ingredients were. “I think they’re listed on the website,” he said, making a reasonable assumption.

When I called Papa John’s customer toll free number, I was told that for “additional information on allergen or nutritional info” I should leave a message with Connie Childs, who would return my call the next business day. I left two messages, but Connie never called. Public relations wasn’t much help either. My emails and voicemails went unanswered. Only Charlie offered a few thoughts about what exactly makes Papa John’s pizza “better.”

“We get deliveries in every three days, so nothing that’s in the fridge is more than a few days old. And we form the dough here. It doesn’t come ready to go, though it is made in a central facility and then frozen,” he said, offering a slightly different version of the story than what’s printed on the pizza boxes.

Read More…

Not only is he cheesy but dishonesty makes him sleazy also…….anything to add?

The Appearance Of Concern

By now we all have heard the ever continuing story of Gen. Patraeus and his paramour….about the FBI agent without a shirt….the gal in Tampa that was all about helping the troops…..now the General in Afghanistan…..yada yada………to me it is more like a reality show than something that the FBI should have been involved in…..and now all those people that condemned people for questioning Patraeus integrity a couple years ago are the very same people that are throwing him under the bus today…..to me this is a story that would have been better left alone until the whole story was known…..but with that said….there is a story in this business……

Well Professor….we are waiting…….

The real story is the woman Jill Kelley and her husband…….

(Newser) – The Tampa socialite at the heart of the Petraeus “love Pentagon” sex scandal was the co-founder of a cancer charity that does not appear to have been involved in any charity work, the Huffington Post finds. Jill Kelley and her surgeon husband founded the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation in 2007, stating that it “shall be operated exclusively to conduct cancer research and to grant wishes to terminally ill adult cancer patients.” But records reveal that the charity went bust later that year, having spent every penny of the $157,284 it started with on expenses like parties, entertainment, and travel.

The charity also listed $12,807 for office expenses and supplies, and $7,854 on utilities and telephones, which is a little on the steep side for a charity that operated out of the couple’s mansion, the HuffPo notes. But the charity isn’t all that’s surfaced on Kelley:

  • The mansion where Kelley and her husband threw lavish parties for military top brass has been in foreclosure since 2010, reports the New York Daily News. The couple owes vast sums to banks and credit card companies and has been hit by at least nine lawsuits.
  • Kelley isn’t just an unpaid social liaison to nearby MacDill Air Force Base, she’s an honorary consul of South Korea, an embassy official tells Foreign Policy. “She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network,” the Korean official says, adding that the position is symbolic and has no official responsibilities.
  • Kelley tried to invoke “diplomatic protection” in one of several 911 calls made over the last few days, Fox reports. Complaining about trespassers on her property, Kelley told the dispatcher, “I’m an honorary consul general … I don’t know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that’s against the law to cross my property because, you know, it’s inviolable.”
  • The Wall Street Journal adds that over the summer, Kelley became worried about personal information getting aired and tried to get the FBI to drop its investigation into threatening emails Paula Broadwell sent her. Broadwell, it notes, also sent anonymous emails to military brass bashing Kelley.

This is the story to watch in all this……..this woman and her hubby are the types of people that I despise……those that pretend the vets are important but they are only a stepping stone to social climbing, for whatever reason……not of any genuine concern…there are too many that fall in this category……..and that is a sad situation all around.

Is Goldman-Sachs Screwed?

Subject:  Financial News/Economic Crisis

The big financial news last week was that the investment firm of Goldman-Sachs was been accused, that is the key word, accused, of financial fraud….the anger by Main Street makes this an interesting turn of events and does not hurt the battle for financial reform either…….unless you are an ardent investor or an economic junkie you probably have NO idea what all the crap is about….true?

Let me help……

The SEC’s submission to New York’s Southern District Court provides a devastating glimpse into the criminal activities of a financial oligarchy that was not only indifferent to the destructive social consequences of its operations, but eager to profit from a crisis precipitated by its own speculative activities.

In April of 2007, just prior to the sub-prime mortgage collapse, Goldman Sachs received $15 million from hedge fund operator John Paulson to help put together a package of securitised home loans—a collateralised debt obligation (CDO)—and market it to Goldman’s clients. According to the SEC, Paulson and Goldman knew that the CDO, called ABACUS 2007-AC1, was comprised of junk assets, but they led the public to believe that a sound investment was being offered.

Paulson had staked the fortunes of his hedge fund betting on a market collapse. He therefore selected the worst sub-prime mortgage securities on the market for the Goldman CDO, mostly derived from mortgages in Arizona, Florida, Nevada and California—states which were subsequently among the hardest hit by the wave of foreclosures.

The banks lured people into taking out mortgages they knew the purchasers could not afford. They then packaged these toxic loans into securities—collateralize debt obligations—and made billions in profits by selling them to investors around the world, including pension funds, 401(k) plans, insurance companies and private investors. Those involved knew very well they were running the equivalent of a giant Ponzi scheme—a fraud far more massive and destructive than the criminal operation headed by Bernard Madoff.  (Thanx to Barry Grey and Patrick O’Connor for the synopsis above)

That is by NO means the end of the tale…..there will be more coming….that is if they really want to find the culprits that caused the economic crisis….it will be interesting see how this plays…after all Wall Street and mostly namely Goldman-Sachs gave a million maybe more to politicians in 2008….will that preclude them being found guilty?

National Financial Literacy Month

Today is the first day of April ….and NO this is NOT an April Fools post….it really is National Financial Literacy month……I personally think this is a good idea because the American people are the dumbest I have found on economic and financial issues…they need all the help they can get and I cannot wait to see just what types of education the people will receive….

I would like to help in their education on economics and finance……

All the people need to know is….if it sounds too good to be true, then it mostly like is……there you go…all you need to survive in this world of economic scams….

One last thing….if your economic strategy is motivated by greed, then you will NEVER learn a valuable lesson!

Side Note:  In case you were considering a visit to the theater to see “How To Drain Your Dragon”…..Done!…..it is a cartoon about training a dragon, not a potty training movie…….I should have known when I realized it was Train not Drain…..(always with a little humor)