Picayune resident Tom Stewart almost became the victim of a Medicare scam Monday afternoon.

Stewart said he received a call around 2:30 p.m. from a man claiming to be calling about Stewart’s Medicare card and that the agency was trying to gather information to send him a new card.

The man asked for Stewart’s bank account number and Social Security number. Stewart became alarmed and told the caller to not call him again and that he wouldn’t give the caller the information he asked for.

Stewart called Medicare to report the scam and was told by a Medicare official that Medicare would never ask for that information from their customers and that if any information needed to be changed or updated, the request would be done through mail.

Chief Deputy Shane Tucker with the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department said that no one has reported a Medicare scam this year.

However, he said to never give out personal information such as bank account and Social Security numbers out over the phone. Medicare already has that information and would have no need to know your bank account numbers.