Prescriptions can be expensive. Many people, especially seniors, have to have them refilled month after month, year after year. It’s not surprising that con artists play on people’s need to find discounted medicine.

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is warning consumers to be aware that “free discount prescription cards” are being offered by unscrupulous individuals. The card is worthless. It’s a ploy to acquire your bank information.

Another approach to defraud is someone telling you must join the prescription drug plan or you lose your Medicare benefits. Don’t believe them. There is a list of Medicare-approved prescription drug plans. The list of approved plans and other information about the program are available at www.medicare.gov or by calling (800) 633-4227.

The July 2012 issue of Costco Connection says seniors may receive offers to buy medicine at 50 percent off or in bulk via mail, email or unsolicited phone calls. Some of these offers require a significant membership fee and/or they want the senior’s credit card number. You may never receive the drugs. If you do, you can’t be sure of the quality. That alone could be dangerous.

If the “plan” asks for your social security number before you actually enroll, consider that a huge red flag. Do not give your personal information out.

“Know the law on how Medicare prescription drug plans can be marketed,” says the National Consumers League’s Internet Fraud Watch. Companies cannot come to your door uninvited or send you unsolicited emails. They may call and promote their plan but not sign you up during those calls. Of course, if you are on the federal “do not call” registry, it’s illegal for them to call you.

If you think you are being approached by a fraudulent Medicare drug plan, call the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services, (800) 447-8477. You’ll be helping many unsuspecting people.

For more information on scams and consumer alerts visit www.tucson.bbb.org.

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is warning consumers to keep a careful eye on your work email this week! Fake “visual voicemail” emails are making the rounds. These emails appear to contain a new voicemail message, but click the attachment and you’ll end up at a scam website.

This is new approach that we’ve not seen at BBB before. The scammers probably hope that the novelty of it will make you curious enough to click on the link. Don’t do it!

How the Scam Works:

The emails appear to come from Microsoft Outlook on “Behalf of an Anonymous Caller,” but the messages reference a variety of URLs and phone numbers. Of the cases we’ve seen, employees are receiving emails that contain an “Email ID” (see screen shot below) that appears to be from an internal company email address.  For example, an employee at business ABC would receive a message citing email ID “voice.mail@ABC.com.”

However, the one thing certain about scams is that they will change. Watch out for new variations on the theme. For example, we have seen multiple emails with a fake voicemail from a 703 (Northern Virginia) area code and from BBB.org email addresses. But scammers are likely to change this up.

Don’t Click the Attachment:

The email attachment appears to be a .wav audio file, but it’s really an HTML link that redirects recipients to a malicious website. The destination website may download malware to scan for banking and other sensitive information on your computer.

For More Information:

To find scams in your area, check Scam Source. To learn more about phishing emails and how to spot them, see our information on the subject.

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona and Mountain State Employers Council (MSEC) are hosting a workshop- Managing Leave of Absence Requests- in Sierra Vista on Thursday, September 20 from 11:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m. at the Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce (SVACC).

Attendees will learn to navigate the confusing, and ever-changing leave of absence maze: from simple requests, to the complexities of the Family Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This educational and interactive overview will cover the key practical issues that HR professionals, supervisors and business leaders face when coping with employees requesting or requiring leave, including:

-Tips for managing and communicating leaves
-Handling intermittent leaves
-Company designated medical leaves
-Using a leave as an accommodation

This session is designed for HR staff, managers and business owners tasked with, or interested in learning about more effective leave management.

The workshop will be at the Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce, 21 E. Wilcox Drive. Email sshambo@tucson.bbb.org by 5 p.m. on September, 19 to RSVP. Register at www.tucson.bbb.org/events-calendar. Workshop cost is $10 for BBB, MSEC, and SVACC members, and $15 for non-members. Lunch will be provided at the workshop.

For more information contact Sara Shambo at (520)732-9823.