George, thanks so much for being here.
This is so frustrating
when these people come out.
What's going on with these guys now with COVID-19?
What's the scam?
Well, Dr. Phil, thanks for having me on there
and what I'd like to first say
is thank you to Dr. Naggie
and also the first responders,
the military, grocery store, sanitation,
everybody that's trying to give us
some normalcy in our life right now.
The top five scams that we're seeing right now
that we're working with the coalition
against insurance fraud
are fake coronavirus insurance,
we're also seeing false canceled health insurance,
corona medicine and tests,
senior scams, and also believe it or not,
bogus travel scams.
Oh my God.
So let's talk about this fake coronavirus insurance.
These are mostly robocalls, right?
Yeah, that's correct.
They are robocalls that are coming out.
For example, one of them that recently came out
was basically saying, "Keep your family safe and secure
"and speak to one of our health agents
"about getting covered with the lowest cost health plan
"in the country.
"Now's the time and don't be late."
It's a pure scam.
Okay, and how do they get money?
Do they get a credit card number?
What do they ask for?
They ask you to give a link,
they'll have you click on a link
and basically what they're trying to do
is they're trying to steal your money and your identity.
They are going in,
they give you malware on your computer
and then they download and steal everything.
Oh my God.
All right, now the canceled health insurance,
these hackers are getting their information,
they're saying they're for companies,
legitimate companies like Blue Cross
and they'll then say call some number
to reinstate the insurance.
How does it work once that happens?
Yeah, so what they're doing
is typically once you get those calls
and they're say that your insurance has been canceled,
please call this 1-800 number right now
or push number one or two
and one of our people will talk to you.
They want to then sign you up,
get your credit card information.
They're also calling and saying,
oh, by the way, you have a family member
that's in the hospital
and they need a ventilator now.
So we need you to go ahead and pay
for the additional cost of the ventilator.
And then of course,
we've talked about the fake coronavirus and tests
and that's just terrible
because people spend money on things,
get their hope up
for something that just doesn't work, right?
That's correct.
We have scammers out there
that are faking vaccines, drugs,
which are all natural, organic
and they're saying that it's all covered by insurance
or also approved by the FDA.
And in actually one case,
we had a guy driving around
in the neighborhood in a van
offering virus tests.
So knock on the door,
that's not how it happens, right?
If somebody's knocking on your door,
either asking for money or offering
some type of test or care,
that's just not how it works.
If they're knocking on your door, it's phony.
It's phony right off the bat.
It's a pure scam.
Medical professionals, health care providers,
don't knock on your door looking for business.
Yeah, and seniors
get targeted a lot in these things, right?
Seniors are probably the number one people
that get taken advantage of
because a lot of 'em live alone,
they're by themselves,
people can't come and visit them now
and so these scammers, fraudsters we call 'em,
are really praying on the seniors.
Now what's this bogus travel insurance?
This is a new one on me.
So as you know,
a lot of times you want to buy travel insurance
when you're getting ready to travel
and you have to pay a certain fee to do that.
Well, most standard insurance policies
don't cover viral outbreaks for pandemics.
And so now you have these companies coming forward
and saying we will cover your costs.
We know that's a flat out lie as well
and that that's not true.
So people pay this
and then they think okay I'm covered if something happens.
Right, and then they go to cancel it,
and their money's gone.
Now tell us a little bit about your commission,
your agency there.
So I'm with the enforcement branch
for the California Department of Insurance
and we are really out there to protect the consumers
and to educate the consumers on these type of fraud scams,
not only with the COVID-19
but multiple other areas of insurance fraud.
I have over 400 employees.
300 of those are sworn officers
and we get tips all the time
on our 1-800 number
that comes through our consumer service division
or from the insurance company itself.
We take those complaints very seriously
and we work with many stakeholders
in tracking down these people.
And our ultimate goal is to prosecute them
and put 'em behind bars where they belong.
Right, and who's your commissioner?
'Cause I've heard you brag on the commissioner quite a bit.
Our new commissioner's Ricardo Lara
and he's done an amazing job
of really educating the consumers
and really taking this department
and putting us out there with the community
on a lot of outreach.
We do town hall meetings
and all kinds of things.
And I have to give the commissioner
a lot of praise on doing that.