Your patients should beware a phone scam from fraudsters pretending to be HHS Office of Inspector General reps.
Under a telephone spoofing scan, perpetrators represent themselves as OIG Hotline employees and alter the caller ID to make it seem as if the call is coming from 1-800-HHS-TIPS, the OIG reports.
Then they use various tactics to obtain the victim’s personal information such as Social Security Number, Date of Birth, driver’s license number, etc. Important: The OIG will not use the tips number to make outgoing calls, and “individuals should not answer calls from 1-800-HHS-TIPS, the agency stresses. See more information, including how to report the scam, in an alert at https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/consumer-alerts/alerts/phonescam.asp.