Last week, HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital switchboard received several calls from community members who said they were contacted by someone from the hospital.
The scammer said a loved one had been airlifted from the hospital, and now the community member would have to pay the bill with a credit card now or by calling a phone number that appeared on caller ID to be a Sacred Heart number.
This is a scam. HSHS Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s hospitals would never call with critical information and ask family members to pay.
If a loved one was injured and in the hospital, HSHS colleagues would call family members and ask them to come to the hospital immediately, or give more information about where that loved one was taken.
Caller ID spoofing is when a caller falsifies the information transmitted to the caller ID display to disguise their identity. This is believed to be the case in these incidents.
For more information about phone scams, visit: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0076-phone-scams
