The Medicare website that is really an ad
The FTC’s open-enrollment warning is about a scam that starts with a search, not a phone call: paid ads that sit above the real Medicare.gov and look official. Here is how to tell the difference in about two seconds.
Most open-enrollment scam warnings are about the phone. The Federal Trade Commission’s alert, published on September 28 ahead of Medicare and Marketplace open enrollment, is about something quieter: the search results page. Its point is simple. Scammers pay to appear at the top of search results, and a paid result can look a great deal like the real thing.
Someone searching for “Medicare plans” in October is exactly who the ad is built for. The link goes to a page that borrows official-looking logos and keywords, or to a number that rings a call center. The FTC says a person who uses that link or number can end up paying for something that is not health insurance, or exposing personal information to medical identity theft.
| Where it starts | A paid ad at the top of search results, not a call or a letter. |
|---|---|
| What it imitates | Medicare.gov and HealthCare.gov, using similar web addresses, official-looking logos and the keywords you searched for. |
| What it can cost you | Payment for a plan that is not health insurance, or medical identity theft. |
| Official addresses | Medicare.gov and HealthCare.gov. Government sites end in .gov. |
| Official phone | 1-800-633-4227 (1-800-MEDICARE) for Medicare. |
| Medicare open enrollment | 15 October – 7 December. The window when this traffic peaks. |
| Where to report | ReportFraud.ftc.gov and your state attorney general; Medicare-related scams also to Medicare at the number above. |
What a paid result looks like
The surest route skips the results altogether. Typing medicare.gov into the browser’s address bar yourself, or calling 1-800-MEDICARE, means no one has paid to put anything in front of you. Then check the address that actually loads: it should end in .gov.
If you do search, a search engine labels paid placements, usually with a small “Ad” or “Sponsored” tag near the result. The tag is easy to miss and the page it leads to can be built to look like a government site. The FTC’s practical advice is to scroll past anything marked that way and look for a result whose address ends in .gov.
Not every ad is a scam. Plenty of paid results come from legitimate private businesses, such as brokers and insurers, that are simply unrelated to the government. The point is narrower: a paid result is not Medicare, and the official Plan Finder is free. Browsing plans and enrolling in one are different stages, and personal details, including a Medicare number, belong at the enrollment stage with a company or agent you chose, not on the first page a search ad sends you to.
Also on The Second Half Guide The Medicare deadline that never forgives you Miss your Medicare enrollment window without the right coverage and you pay a surcharge every month for life. The seven months that decide it. Read it →A paid result is not a government result. The only thing a search ad proves is that someone paid for the position.
Why the ad works
An ad does not have to be a convincing forgery. It only has to be there at the moment a person is looking, with a headline that echoes the search, and a logo or a web address close enough to pass at a glance. People searching for plan information in the fall are doing something unfamiliar and a little stressful, and the first plausible result is the one most of them click. Search engines carry the ads because advertisers pay for the position, and the FTC’s alert treats that as a fact about how the system works, not a defect in the reader.
It is also not a new concern for the agency. FTC staff sent warning letters to 21 healthcare plan marketers and lead generators in December 2024, which the agency said did not allege that the recipients had broken the law, and the agency has run consumer alerts on open-enrollment scams in earlier years. It held a public roundtable on healthcare scams around open enrollment on September 29. The paid-search version is the part that has grown, because the ad can be placed in front of exactly the person searching.
Why October
Medicare open enrollment runs from 15 October to 7 December, and shopping for 2027 coverage sends millions of people to search engines at once. Marketplace open enrollment follows. The FTC has issued warnings of this kind in earlier years, and this year’s adds the search-advertising angle plainly. The scheme depends on timing: the ad is waiting when a person who is already looking types in the query.
It also pairs with the phone problem. A web form that collects a name and number is how a call center gets the list it dials later. That is one reason the sensible response is the same as for a cold call: be careful with a Medicare number, Social Security number or bank details: give them only to a company or agent you chose, reached through an address or number you verified yourself. The older piece on why the phone rings more in October covers the calling side.
If you already clicked
Clicking an ad is not the harm. The harm comes from what happens next: a payment, a Medicare or Social Security number typed into a form, a call to the number on the page. If you stopped before that point, there is nothing to undo. If you did not, the FTC’s guidance is to report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general, and to Medicare at 1-800-633-4227 when Medicare is involved. A free State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) counselor can help sort out which coverage you actually have.
If you gave out a Medicare or Social Security number, review your Medicare claims for services you did not receive, which is how medical identity theft usually shows up. If you think your identity has been misused, the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov walks through recovery steps, and the FTC has separate guidance on medical identity theft. Seeing an ad is not a reason to go there.
What to check
- Go to Medicare.gov by typing the address, or by using a bookmark made once from a source you trust.
- If you do use a search engine, skip results marked Ad or Sponsored and check that the address ends in .gov before clicking.
- Be wary of a page that asks for payment, or for a Medicare number, before it shows you plans. The official Plan Finder is free.
- A free SHIP counselor or Senior Medicare Patrol volunteer can help with plan comparisons without selling you anything.
- If you were taken in, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general, and to Medicare at 1-800-633-4227 if Medicare is involved.
None of this requires technical skill. It requires noticing that the first result is not always the official one, a habit that costs two seconds and protects a number that cannot be reissued.
This is general fraud-prevention information, not a substitute for reporting an active scam. The official reporting and assistance resources linked above are the right next step if you or someone you know may be a target.
Where these facts come from
Checked on 3 October 2026 against the sources listed below. Dollar limits and program rules change — if you're reading this well after that date, verify the numbers at the links below.
- FTC — What to know ahead of Open Enrollment to avoid health insurance scams (Consumer Alert, September 2026) — https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2026/09/what-know-ahead-open-enrollment-avoid-health-insurance-scams
- FTC — Medicare Impersonators — https://consumer.ftc.gov/medicare-impersonators
- FTC — How to avoid Medicare Open Enrollment scams (Consumer Alert, October 2023) — https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/10/how-avoid-medicare-open-enrollment-scams
- Bitdefender — FTC Warns of Fake Health Insurance Ads Online — https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/hotforsecurity/fake-health-insurance-ads-ftc-warning
Edward Silva
Edward spent more than forty years as a computer professional — long enough to pick up one useful occupational habit: when somebody hands you a summary, go and read the actual documentation. He started The Second Half Guide after noticing that most writing aimed at people his age was either talking down to him or quietly selling him something, and that the plain facts — the dates, the thresholds, the dollar figures — were somehow the hardest part to find.
He's married, with two grown sons, both married themselves. He is not a financial adviser, an attorney or an insurance agent, and this site doesn't tell you what to do with your money. It tells you what the rules actually say, and links to where he checked.