Good morning! Today we’ve got a free AI tool for your Medicare and Social Security questions, a trick for skipping past an automated phone system, and a scam warning every pet owner should know about.
In today’s issue: a free AI chatbot for Medicare and Social Security questions, how to skip past Social Security’s AI phone bot, and a cruel new AI scam targeting people with lost pets.
Let’s get started.
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Got a Medicare or Social Security Question? Try This Free AI Helper
If you’ve ever wished you could just ask someone your Medicare or Social Security question and get a plain answer, AARP has built something for exactly that. It’s a free tool called “Ask AARP” — a chatbot on AARP’s website that answers using AARP’s own trusted articles, instead of whatever it finds floating around the internet.
You don’t need to be an AARP member to use it. Go to aarp.org/ask-aarp, type or speak your question the way you’d ask a friend — something like “When can I enroll in Medicare?” — and it writes back a plain-English answer, with links to AARP’s fuller articles if you want to read more.
The tool recently won a Webby Award — one of the internet’s best-known honors for websites and apps — in a category for trustworthy AI. With Medicare’s Open Enrollment period running through December 7, it’s a good time to give it a try.
Takeaway: Next time you have a Medicare or Social Security question, try typing it into the free “Ask AARP” chatbot — just don’t type in sensitive numbers like your actual Social Security number when you do.
— AARP
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Calling Social Security? Here’s How to Skip Past the Robot
If you’ve called Social Security’s main phone number lately, you may have noticed something new: instead of a person, you’re greeted by an AI voice assistant asking, “How can I help you today?” The Social Security Administration added this AI phone bot to try to shorten long wait times.
It can be handy for simple things, like checking on a form you mailed in. But it’s known to struggle with anything more personal — like questions about spousal or survivor benefits.
The good news is there’s a simple way around it. If the bot isn’t understanding you, or your question is complicated, just say the word “agent” clearly when it asks how it can help. That tells the system to route you to a real person instead of looping through automated menus.
Takeaway: If Social Security’s AI phone bot isn’t helping, say “agent” out loud to get transferred to a real person — and have your question written down before you call.
— AARP
STAYING SAFE
Lost Your Dog or Cat? Watch Out for This Cruel AI Scam
If you’ve ever posted about a lost pet on Facebook or Nextdoor, this is a scam worth knowing before you ever need to. Police in Florida have warned that scammers are now watching “lost pet” posts in neighborhood groups, grabbing the photo you shared, and using AI to create a realistic fake image showing your pet injured, sedated, or “in surgery.”
The scammer then contacts you directly — posing as a veterinarian, a good Samaritan, or even a police officer — and demands immediate payment, often through gift cards, cryptocurrency, or apps like Venmo or Cash App, before they’ll supposedly return your pet. In most reported cases, the scammer never actually had the animal at all.
Similar versions of this scam have turned up in other states too, so it’s not limited to one area.
Takeaway: If someone contacts you claiming to have found your lost pet and demands money before giving it back, don’t send anything — call a real local vet clinic or animal shelter yourself to check, and ask the caller for a live video call or a photo holding today’s newspaper as proof first.
Until tomorrow,
EZ AI