While minding your business at home, you get a call that SEEMS to be coming from your doctor’s office.
You answer, and the person on the phone says they’re updating your records and need some information. Caller ID confirms it’s your doctor’s office, so you give them your name, date of birth and Social Security number before hanging up.
Unfortunately, you’ve just been the victim of a phone “spoofing” scam, and now they’ve got your personal information. And with your personal information in their hands, they can do a lot of harm.
Scams are everywhere, and they can come in almost any form, from a phone call to an email or text message. At first, they can be hard to recognize because scammers know how to take advantage of your trust in certain people and places — like the trust you have in your health care provider.
But with a few tips and rules, you can foil the scammers. Most scammers can be recognized if you know what to look for. For example:
• Scammers’ calls are usually unsolicited, meaning you didn’t do anything to initiate the call from these so-called government agencies, hospitals or nonprofits. Even if you’re connected somehow to an organization, a random call from them may well mean that it is a scammer on the phone.
• If you receive a call from your health insurance company that is unexpected or suspicious, hang up and call your insurance company directly to verify whether the call was real or not.
• Scammers often push you…
