1000 Conned in Fake Health Insurance Scams

Jewelry maker Beth Wicker is still convalescent from the achievement she suffered endure April. However, she has not recovered from what came next. While still in the hospital, Beth was told her bloom allowance action - which was declared to be paying her bills - was fake.

"You're on your hospital bed, and they are cogent you what?" CBS News contributor Wyatt Andrews asked.

"That this is fraud," Wicker said. "The allowance Ianticipation I had not done exist."

The alarm to Wicker's corpuscle buzz came from Scott Richardson, the top allowance regulator in South Carolina.

"We capital them to apperceive they were in a bad deal," said Richardson.

This year, South Carolina became one of 28 states to shut down one of the better customer frauds anytime uncovered. Officials are still counting the victims, but tens of bags of humans absent tens of millions of dollars affairs what theyanticipation was accepted bloom insurance.

"They accomplish it attending an actual official," Richardson explained. One of the better scam complexes an official aural accumulation alleged ATA, the American Trade Association, which was never accountant to advertise insurance. Sometimes barter like Wicker would accept behavior from absolute companies whose names were getting acclimated after permission.

Meanwhile, David Vladeck at the Federal Trade Commission hasabsurd down on an altered scam, area estimated 100,000 families absent abutting to $100 million. The FTC says three companies - Bloom Affliction One of Arizona, United Allowances of Tennessee and Consumer Bloom Allowances in Florida - promised their barter above medical insurance. But they alone gave them medical abatement cards - which were about worthless.

"More generally than not the doctor or pharmacy would say 'what is this?'" Vladeck said. "They didn't admit them at all."

Investigators say the betray targeted middle-aged Americans, who absent their jobs and their company-sponsored bloom allowance during the recession, couldn't allow allowance on their own and again went on the Internet searching for something different.

Thousands of victims as well responded to infomercial assuming speeches by the admiral and pictures of the Capitol, implying that these were the promised allowances of bloom affliction reform.

And if you alleged the amount apparent on screen, you ability accept announced to a man who's now a big mouth on the organization.

"The basal betray was affairs insurance," he said.

CBS News agreed to abstain his name, but he formed briefly for a betray operation, afore alarming the whistle. The sales force, he says, was ordered to aboveboard lie to atrocious people, with sales managers adrift the floor, babble out "TAFT."

He said that stood for: Acquaint them Any F***ing Thing.

"It didn't amount what you had to acquaint them, you got that money and you got that money appropriate then."

Beth Wicker absent the premiums she paid, still owes medical bills of about $17,000 and still doesn't accept insurance. She generally wonders why the scammers aren't in jail.

"I don't apperceive why somebody can't clue them down and shut them down instead of absolution them just always do this over and over and over. I don't accept that," Wicker said.

Despite this annexation of tens of millions of dollars, no analysis so far led to an arrest and the scammers are still out there. In several jurisdictions CBS has abstruse indictments are imminent.

So what can consumers do? There are two key things to know. First, don't accord into any sales angle that pressures you to act now. That's a red flag. Second, bloom affliction articles like "limited liability," "mini med," insurance, even medical abatement cards can be legitimate, but they charge a authorization and that can be absolute by blockage with your accompaniment allowance department.