Houston, MO-Texas County Memorial Hospital has received reports from area community members that scammers are actively placing phone calls that display the hospital and clinic names and phone numbers.
According to Alison Clayton, 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” Clayton said. “TCMH will never call anyone to sell credit cards, insurance plans, restructure debt, inquire about your medications, or perform any type of solicitation.”
Clayton recommends that if anyone is suspicious of a call from the hospital or one of our clinics, she 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 or clinic’s phone number that they are already familiar with using.
