Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

A recent scam alert suggests that you should be extra cautious of giving your personal information out over the phone — even to the feds.

Details: In an unusual about-face, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) warns individuals to be wary of telephone calls using official OIG phone numbers. Apparently, scammers are using real OIG numbers in a spoofing scheme to steal individuals’ data for nefarious purposes.

“These scammers represent themselves as HHS-OIG employees and can alter the appearance of the caller ID to make it seem as if the call is coming from HHS-OIG phone numbers found on its public website,” the agency said in an alert. “The perpetrator may use various tactics to obtain or verify the victim’s personal information, which can then be used to steal money from an individual’s bank account or for other fraudulent activity.”

OIG is working in tandem with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to assist individuals spoofed by the fraudsters.

Find out how to report a scam with OIG or file a complaint with the FTC at https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/consumer-alerts/alerts/phone-scam.asp.