Important Telephone Scam Announcement
Posted over 13 years ago by Richard Brown
Please see the following message from Genell Lee, Executive Officer of the Alabama Board of Nursing:
Please see the information below from Missouri. We received word that the same scam is occurring in other states as well. Alabama also does not release telephone numbers of nurses and if you receive a request for information that you believe is part of a scam, feel free to contact us to verify if we provided the information. We recently changed our telephone system but we should show up on caller ID as Ala Bd Nursing if we call you about a matter. Feel free to spread this information throughout your organization.
Executive Officer
Alabama Board of Nursing
P.O. Box 303900
Montgomery, AL 36130-3900
1-800-656-5318
334-242-4184
Fax: 334-242-4360
www.abn.alabama.gov
Alert: Unsolicited Calls for Nursing Information in Missouri
More than 100 Missourinurses contacted the State Board of Nursing within the past two weeks, reporting calls about re-registration/licensure renewal applications. Although the requests from the caller to “verify” practice information have been varied, the calls are not coming from the State Board of Nursing. The caller ID number appears to have been the same for each call.
To date, Missouri’s Board of Nursing has been unable to identify a breach in their security. ANA is not sure if this extends beyond Missouri’s borders, but wanted to alert you and your membership. Should nurses experience such calls, they should report this immediately to the Board of Nursing.
Here are some specific examples that were forwarded by the Board of Nursing:
- During a call from 632-368-7550, the caller wanted to know what field of nursing I was working in, was I working at this time, when I quit working, verify my name and zip code. Then she hung up the phone.
- The lady that called had a foreign accent and spoke poor English. Said she needed to verify the seven questions that were previously answered and also needed to know my nursing specialty. “Unknown caller” showed up on her caller ID.
- Person called and said my information was not complete and he needed to get more information about my nursing license. I specifically asked him if he was from the nursing board and he said no. The caller id said 632-368-7550. I googled this and it is a suspected Nigerian scam. My main question is how these callers are getting nurses’ phone numbers, which are not made public by the board.
- Person that identified himself as Pinstripe called and said he was from Intrahealth – he called three times and claimed to be from the board and wanted updated information from me. I refused. He refused to leave a number and showed up “unknown” on caller ID.
- Someone called claiming to be from the board. They told her that she needed to answer some questions about her license. She refused and said that she would call us today and if we had questions, we could ask her then.
- Caller identified herself as Selena from Pinstripe Healthcare. Had an accent. Said she was “from the nursing” – I asked her if she was from the Board of Nursing and she said – “I am from nursing” – caller said some of her information was lost and they needed to update it. I asked her what my license number was and caller couldn’t answer. I told her I was going to call the board, at which point the caller hung up. Caller ID was 632-368-7550.