Same Old Trick. The scams going around this week, with figures.

No. 1, week of Oct 29 to Nov 4. Figs. 1 to 3, three to practice on, answers at the back.

The grocery allowance caller is on top this week, with 2 enrollment seasons open at once. The health plan robocall came in with the Marketplace on Nov 1, and a kid’s job hunt takes the third slot. None of the searches we track jumped. There’s a refund check in the practice round, worth looking up before you decide.

How it’s done: A caller says a grocery and health allowance is waiting and goes to somebody else unless you stay on the line, or that your Medicare file was flagged for a missing status check that will hold up your 2027 enrollment. Both versions keep coming back to whether you have Parts A and B (Nomorobo’s transcripts, Oct 28).

Why it’s first: Nomorobo, which sells call blocking, says its test lines logged 28,262 Medicare-related calls in 3 days, Oct 16 to 18, and some may be sales calls rather than scams. Source: Nomorobo (a call-blocking company), Oct 28, 2026.

The tell: Medicare’s own fraud page: “Medicare will never call you to sell you anything or visit you at your home.” (medicare.gov, checked Nov 5)

One thing to do: Hang up and call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), the step medicare.gov gives for a caller who asks for information or money or threatens your benefits (checked Nov 5).

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 at 1-800-318-2596, open around the clock except holidays (HealthCare.gov’s contact page, checked Nov 5).

How it’s done: A text, or a WhatsApp or Telegram message, comes from a recruiter who says they’re with a company you may know. It names the pay, says almost nothing about the work, and lately just asks you to answer YES or INTERESTED (FTC, Apr 30, 2026). Once you reply there’s a reason to send money: a check to deposit and pass along, or online tasks that pile up fake earnings until you’re told to put in your own money, usually crypto, to reach them, and the app may even pay out $5 to $20 first (FTC, Aug 2025).

Why it’s third: a kid’s job hunt is part of our promise, and nothing above touches one. Job scam was also the most searched of the 9 scam terms we track, Oct 29 to Nov 4, though down 12% on the week before. Data source: Google Trends. Search interest is relative, not a count of people.

The tell: The FTC’s task scams page keeps it to one rule: never pay anyone to get paid, and never pay to get a job (Aug 2025).

One thing to do: Before answering, search the company’s or recruiter’s name with the word scam, review or complaint, though the FTC adds that finding nothing doesn’t prove a company is honest (its job scams page, checked Nov 5).

A text to your mother, from a number she doesn’t know:

Who does this one claim to be, and where would you check?

A letter in the mailbox, with a check inside:

Who does this one claim to be, and where would you check?

A direct message about a couch you listed for $150 on a marketplace app:

Who does this one claim to be, and where would you check?

The FTC had to put this in writing, on a page about callers pretending to be the FTC: “A real FTC employee will never ever tell you to keep your conversations secret.” It holds for every caller, not just the ones claiming to be the FTC. (FTC, Oct 22, 2026, checked Nov 5)

On the family call, ask who’s likeliest to lose money to a scam, and watch everyone point at the same person. The FTC’s numbers say it isn’t that simple: in 2025, younger adults were generally more likely than older adults to report losing money to fraud, and older adults were likelier on tech support, prize and government impersonation scams (FTC, Nov 4). Those are reports to the FTC, not a count of everyone, and people 80 and over who did lose money lost more, $2,000 at the median (FTC, Oct 2026).

1. It claims to be her kid, with a new number. The check is the old number: call it, or call a sibling. Phones do fall in sinks, so can’t tell yet, and the favor is the thing to wait for: if it’s money sent somewhere new, that’s the only part of the text that needed a new number.
2. It claims to be the second refund check in the FTC’s case against Publishers Clearing House, and that program is on the FTC’s list, dated November 2026: type ftc.gov/refunds yourself. The FTC runs it, Rust Consulting, Inc. is the administrator the list names, this round is 204,408 checks, more than $4.4 million, to people who accepted the first one in April 2025, and it pays by check, good for 90 days. The FTC says nobody has to pay anything to get a refund. A copycat could say all of that and we haven’t seen the real letter, so can’t tell yet: the number for questions is the FTC’s, 1-888-516-0774 (checked Nov 5), not the letter’s.
3. It claims to be a buyer with a mover and an overpayment. The check is your own bank app, not an email or screenshot, and even a higher balance doesn’t settle it: the FTC says a fake check can sit there for weeks before the bank takes it back, and to skip mobile payments from strangers (July 2022, checked Nov 5). No cash goes to the mover. That’s the 1890 version, a stranger paying more than he owed and asking for the difference in cash.

Same time next week, same old trick.