Texas County Memorial Hospital has received reports from area community members that scammers are actively placing phone calls that display the hospital’s name and phone numbers.
According to Stuart Mitchell, TCMH information systems director, the scammers are using a tactic called “neighbor spoofing” that falsifies caller ID information in hopes that the person will answer the call, thinking it is a business or someone they know and trust.
“Unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do to prevent this from happening aside from raising awareness in our community” Mitchell said. “TCMH will never call anyone to sell credit cards, insurance plans, restructure debt or perform any type of solicitation.”
Mitchell recommends that if anyone is suspicious of a call from the hospital, he would encourage them to hang up on the caller and call back using a number from their appointment card, billing statement or another hospital department’s phone number that they are already familiar with using.