Avoid falling victim to scammers when signing up for health insurance

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act can be tricky. How do you know the person "helping" you isn't actually tricking you? Contact 6 offers two ways you can verify an agent's credentials.

Courtney Love works full-time at a daycare center that does not offer health insurance.

So when a man came to the door offering to help workers sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Love jumped at the chance.

Love says the man had credentials, but soon after she turned over her personal information, Love says she started wondering whether she had made a mistake.

"We figured that it was legit because he had this information, but it worried us when we couldn't get in contact with him," Love said.

Love says the man wasn't answering his phone, and Love hadn't heard back from him days later.

"The first thing I thought is what is he doing with this information that he has because he has everyone's social security numbers and you can do a lot with social security numbers! The next thing that popped into my head was Katrina Cravy!" Love said.

Contact 6 learned the man Love talked with is Jeffrey Lewis -- a certified insurance agent for more than 25 years.

"I showed her my license, I showed her my certificates, and she said 'well this could be a scam.'  I said 'well I can't prove it any other way.  This is all I got," Lewis told Contact 6.

Lewis says the credentials he has via the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance look generic, but says he's certified to help people sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

"People's information I don't share with anybody," Lewis said.

Lewis says him not answering his phone was a misunderstanding.

"I can't answer the phone when I'm talking to other people, but I will call you back before I go home, or you can call my partner Peter, but we will get back to you," Lewis said.

Contact 6 called the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance to confirm Lewis is legit, and also looked him up on the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance's website.

Contact 6 also reminds folks that Lewis, and other legitimate agents will never ask for any banking or credit card information.