Identity Theft Risks With Fake 'Obamacare' Websites

If you don't have health insurance you now have less than two months to enroll or face a fine. However, if you don't know exactly where to sign up it could mean trouble.

Natalie Acuna, a hairdresser without an employee sponsored plan, is one of the thousands of Oklahomans who is now required to purchase health insurance. So about a month ago she went on-line to check out her options.

"I put in a little bit of information, not a lot, just my name and number and the web site shut down," she recalls. "So I was like okay, I'll just try some other day. Well then right after that I started getting phone calls."

At first she took the call.

"I thought the prices were high so I said ‘Hey, let me call you back.' Well, they kept calling me over and over again."

The issue seems to be when people don't remember the exact healthcare.gov website so they go onto Google and type in Obamacare. That's when a number of sites pop up. All look like the government site but aren't. There are a reported 1,000 fake Obamacare websites out there. In some cases authorities warn the scam sites will steal your personal information and possibly your identity. In Natalie's case the incessant calls nearly stole her sanity.

"Like seven times a day and it was a different person every time and I was like ‘I already told the last person I would think about it and call back.'"

The only legitimate Obamacare marketplace here in Oklahoma is run by the federal government, that web site healthcare.gov.

Oklahomans have to have insurance by March 31.