Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports numerous senior citizens in his community have recently reported receiving unsolicited telephone calls from individuals who are identifying themselves as being with the federal Medicare program and threatening to cut the senior citizen’s Medicare benefits off if the individual does not provide personal information such as birth dates, social security numbers, bank account numbers and other personal data.The Chief says the callers are being very persistent and in some instances have called the same senior citizen up to three times.  In some instances the caller has information to include the senior citizen’s bank account number, a check number and bank routing number.

The Clarinda Police Department would like to remind everyone to never provide sensitive personal information to unknown callers on telephone and to immediately hang up the telephone if a call of this nature is received. Brothers says the federal Medicare program does not ask for personal information over the telephone.He said also that his department often sees an increase in this type of fraud during the Medicare open enrollment period, but is continuing to see this type of fraud attempted even though the enrollment period has passed.