Emergency Center at Phoebe Worth ‘spoofed’ in phone scam

SYLVESTER — Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital officials sent out a press release late Wednesday in regards to an apparent phone scam in which the phone number of the Emergency Center at Phoebe Worth Medical Center in Sylvester is used.

According to a Phoebe news release, scam artists are using a technique called “spoofing,” in which they deliberately falsify the information transmitted to the caller ID display of a telephone to disguise their identity.

“The con artists are trying to convince call recipients that they have outstanding student loan debts that need to be paid,” the news release said. “More than 30 people have returned missed calls from the scammers. Those calls have been answered by nurses in the Phoebe Worth EC.”

According to Phoebe officials, the issue was reported to the Sylvester Police Department, which is investigating.

“We want to ensure Southwest Georgians that these calls have nothing to do with Phoebe,” the Phoebe release said. “They should not respond to the calls.”

Sylvester Police Department’s Assistant Police Chief Kenneth Washington confirmed that at least 30 Worth County residents had reported receiving the calls.

“Apparently, someone, somehow, got Phoebe’s number, and they are calling people and telling them that they owe money for a student loan,” Washington said. “People are calling Phoebe back, telling them that they don’t have student loans. What they have done, these computer geniuses/hackers, whoever they are, have found out how to download Phoebe’s number to call these people. I have seen it done with a cell phone before, but I have never seen it done with a land line.

“We have had about 30 people report the scam. So far, we do not have any suspects. Phoebe’s IT department is trying to determine where the calls came from, but I don’t think there is anything that they can do. Our department has reached out to AT&T to see if the calls can be traced.”

According to Washington, none of the call recipients that he knows of fell for the scam and actually gave the scam artists money.

“So far, we don’t know of anybody that has actually fallen for this and given these callers money,” Washington said. “Mostly it has been people returning missed calls to Phoebe and Phoebe nurses being really confused. But none of these calls actually came from inside Phoebe Worth.”

According to Washington, the case remains under investigation.