AARP Fraud Watch Network

If you are one of America’s 55 million Medicare beneficiaries (or, if someone in your life is), you need to know about a big, POSITIVE change coming. Starting this month, the U.S. government is mailing out new Medicare cards that have been redesigned to help prevent identity theft. New enrollees will be among the first to get the cards. Current enrollees will get theirs over the next year.

Last week, AARP announced the launch of “ The Perfect Scam”, a weekly podcast profiling America’s most shocking consumer scam stories.

Today, we unveiled a new Fraud Watch Network campaign to inform Americans about social media hazards and provide information about how consumers can protect themselves and their loved ones. While roughly 70 percent of Americans regularly use social media, according to the Pew Research Center, many aren’t aware of these new types of scams.

It’s clear that a majority of people want to remain independent as they age, and now technology can help them do so. As a Northern Virginia resident and an employee of AARP, I was drawn to a recent local event titled “ Can Technology Help Older Arlingtonians Age Independently?”

To that most special woman in our lives we eagerly pay tribute on Mother’s Day. And for next Sunday’s tributes, we’ll pay a record-breaking $23.6 billion — a $2 billion uptick over last year and some $9 billion more than is spent on Father’s Day.

Spring cleaning shouldn’t end with a yard sale or Goodwill drop-off. Here are some seasonally appropriate sprucing tips to reduce your risk of identity theft and other fraud.

How much is that doggy on the computer screen? With a recent resurgence in the longtime Puppy Scam, it’s costing some pet-seekers thousands of dollars and heaps in heartbreak.