Overview
The victim expects to enroll or adjust enrollment or coverage in a healthcare plan, particularly in November around "open enrollment" season in the United States.
How It Works
The scammer will contact the victim, usually by phone, SMS or email, claiming to have information about the victim's healthcare plan or a new way for the victim to enroll in healthcare.
The scam is that if the victim follows any of the links or instructions from the scammer, they will be engaging with phishing pages designed to harvest credentials, and potentially leading to account theft or other personal data theft.
Related Articles
The "Free Genetic Test" Medicare Scam, American Bar Association 2026-01-16
Related Scams
2.2.3 Spoofed Or Phishing Interaction Scam: This scam is related to generic spoofing or phishing scams
Related Crime Schemes
A particular instance of this scam may embed one or more of these related schemes.
Data Loss or Theft: Any scheme that results in victim losing data/scammer stealing data. Data in this context can mean login credentials, credit card details, or other personal or corporate information.
Fraudulent Platform: Any scheme that relies on custom built software that assists the crime. Includes fraudulent trading platforms, fraudulent clickworking platforms, and the like.
Victim Targeting Context
The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to reach the victim.
Spray and Pray / Scattered: The scammer approaches many victims at once such as through bulk email or SMS.
Semi-Targeted Collection: The bait (initial reachout) is sent out to people in a collection harvested online, for example from some data breach or corporate directory.
Semi-Targeted Regionally: The scammer approaches people in a certain region, for example by area code (toll scam) using semi-targeted email or SMS.
Social Engineering: Psychological Manipulations
The scammer may use one or more of these psychological techniques to accomplish the scam.
Abuse of authority position: The scammer employs an abuse of a position of authority to convince the victim to go along with the scam.
Codes or Jargon: The scammer uses official-looking codes or technical jargon as part of the scam to increase appearance of legitimacy or to confuse the victim.
Threats/Fear/Extortion/Blackmail: The scammer employs threats to increase fear in the victim so that they will go along with the scam. Threats can include financial loss, legal action, arrest, account closure, extortion, blackmail.
Timing: The scammer times the scam to coincide with events or a particular season in the victim's context or locale, in order to build legitimacy.
Urgency: The scammer employs urgency to increase the likelihood that the victim will take action.
Social Engineering: Impersonation Techniques
The scammer may impersonate one or more of the following groups as part of the scam.
Business or NonProfit: The scammer impersonates a business or nonprofit.
Government: The scammer impersonates a government official.