The Tulsa Health Department wants people to be aware of a new phone scam.
It’s hard to ignore: They’re using spoofing to make themselves more convincing.
"These scammers, they use pretty sophisticated technology that allows them to impersonate our phone number. So, on people’s phones, the caller ID was showing up either as the health department or our phone number," said health department spokeswoman Leanne Stephens.
Posing as the Tulsa Health Department or someone with Medicare, the caller asks for information like the person’s Medicare card number, name, address, phone number and Social Security number.
Stephens said the health department will never ask for that kind of personal information over the phone. The health department has received several reports of calls and has notified the Oklahoma Insurance Department.
It seems to be a new one in the annals of health department–related scams.
"Someone has posed as a health inspector at a restaurant. We’ve had instances where someone has called restaurants and say that their food license has expired and they need to give their credit card information over the phone immediately," Stephens said.
