Calls of the Wild

I get way too many spam calls. Way too many. For a time, they were mainly from human beings affiliated with contracting companies — i.e., firms that wanted me to hire them to do work on my home. The grand flurry of those calls has lessened to a trickle if you don't count the ones that want me to sign up for some new energy-saving/solar deal underwritten by the state. I still get plenty of those.

The new flurry is from outfits that have the word "Medicare" in their names and are trying to sound like they are representatives of the real Medicare service. They want to send me "free" medical equipment, usually either COVID tests or some sort of brace or belt to help me with some physical condition they've heard I have. The call I just got included this exchange…

GUY ON PHONE: I see here that you've been suffering from back pain.

ME: No, I haven't. Could you tell me what you're reading from?

GUY ON PHONE: It's on my computer screen here. It says you've been suffering from back pain.

ME: Where did this information come from? Why do you have access not only to medical information about me but to inaccurate medical information?

And at this point, the line went dead. Guy on Phone hung up and, I suppose, called someone else. And then someone else and someone else and someone else and so on. Eventually, he surely found people who were suffering from back pain and didn't understand that he was not calling from the actual, accept-no-substitutes Medicare…and then I'm curious where the scam goes from there.

Would they get me to give them enough information so that they can send me some worthless piece o' junk and then bill Medicare for having sent it to me? Or would they try to get me to give them a credit card they could charge and tell me I could apply to Medicare for reimbursement? Or is there some other angle here I'm missing? And didn't that same guy call me last week telling me the state would pay for solar panels on my house?