One of the scams going around right now.
The health plan ad or robocall during enrollment
Fig. 2.First in the letter: issue 1, the week of Oct 29 to Nov 4, 2026.Last updated: Nov 5, 2026.
One of the scams going around right now.
Fig. 2.First in the letter: issue 1, the week of Oct 29 to Nov 4, 2026.Last updated: Nov 5, 2026.
Issue 1, the week of Oct 29 to Nov 4, 2026. Read the whole issue.
How it’s done: Marketplace enrollment opened Nov 1 and runs to Jan 15, and the ads and calls came with it. The FTC says some pitches promise a full plan and deliver thin benefits or a medical discount card that isn’t a health plan at all, and some are dressed up to look like the government or a company you’d recognize, in paid search results, social feeds, texts and phone calls (FTC, Oct 29).
Our pick: we found no count for these, but the FTC warned about the ads and robocalls on Oct 29, 3 days before enrollment opened. Source: Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov), Oct 29, 2026.
The tell: From the FTC’s page: “it’s illegal to robocall you with prerecorded messages marketing health insurance.” (consumer.ftc.gov, Oct 29)
One thing to do: Start at HealthCare.gov, typed in yourself, or call the Marketplace Call Center.
The email printed the phone number. A number can change after we check it, so this page sends you to the owner’s own site for it instead.
None so far. If anything here turns out wrong, the fix goes on this page with the date we made it, and on the corrections page as well.
Text it or email it to whoever in the family gets these calls. A new message opens with the page address already in it, and you choose who gets it and what it says.
Or copy the address by hand:
sameoldtrick.com/
Typed in, it opens this same page, and typing an address yourself is the habit we keep recommending anyway.
Same Old Trick is a free weekly email about the scams going around: three a week, who each one pretends to be, the tell, one thing to do, and three practice messages.
The first thing you get is a page to keep by the phone.
Type your address below, then click the link in the email we send. Nobody can do that click but you.
Your own address, nobody else’s. A confirmation email from Same Old Trick comes first, and nothing arrives until you click the link in it. It’s free, every issue has an unsubscribe link, and your address is held by Kit, the company that sends the email for us, and nobody else.
Signing up a parent? They do that part themselves, at sameoldtrick.com/mom, with their own address.