I got a voicemail from the Kroger pharmacist who told me to call her back. It was definitely the Kroger pharmacy number because I’ve had to call it before, so that was not part of the scam.
However, some scammer who knew who my health insurance company was (I get it through my wife, which ads to the creepiness here) tried to get my personal health data from the Kroger pharmacy. They asked for personal info and the pharmacist said she wouldn’t give it to them but would have me call them back.
She told me all of this when I called her to find out what was up. She gave me the number and the first thing I did was look it up to see if it was legitimate because that just sounded off to me.
Sure enough, the first link that came up was a Facebook post (Why Facebook as the first link in the search? No idea.) warning about that number specifically scamming people by pretending to be my insurance company, followed by other links on other websites talking about it being a scammer source, and not just just for health insurance scamming.
They’ve also somehow fucked with the SEO because in between those were legitimate links to my health insurance company, but that phone number is not on the pages.
I feel really bad for anyone who falls for this, because it was clearly just legitimate enough for the pharmacist to not suggest to me that I should be careful about being scammed. I know exactly who I talked to and she’s a cool lady, so I’m pretty sure she would have if she was sure enough.
Update if anyone is still around: Contacted the state pharmacy board and also went to the local pharmacy and told them about it. I couldn’t figure out the right people to get in touch with at the FBI, but I have a feeling I’m going to have to contact the state attorney general next and ick.
Sounds like your insurance company has a data leak problem
UnitedHealth had a massive ransomware attack in Feb and millions of people got their data leaked.
Not just them. I’ve gotten 3 letters from providers saying data was stolen and 1 from my ins company saying the same.
It’s a wonder we even try to keep this shit safe anymore where every company with underpaid or incompetent IT/security hold our data.
I was recently in college for IT, and my professors said a couple of times that it’s best practice just to assume that all of your info has already been stolen
I try to protect it but apparently I got a report that my social got stolen recently. Health insurance sucks, we keep getting massive increase in costs, then swap providers, then my data is stored in more and more systems waiting to be breached.
Hell, my company switches 401k providers every year, another company now gets all my info or I lose my 401k and I have no choice
Probably. Sadly, they’re one of the biggest in the U.S. and I don’t get to choose.
They are required to meet HIPAA. If they aren’t make a storm of it and report them.
I’ve received more healthcare provider PII leak letters in the last couple years than the number of appointments I’ve had. Everyone is so eager to come up with some shiny new software to sell in the healthcare goldrush, but so many of them are absolutely terrible at security.
My guess it’s from the Change Healthcare breach back in Feb.
Someone emailed my boss a while back pretending to be me. Asked that my direct deposit be changed. Boss told me he nearly sent it to the accountant but decided he should double check with me first. People are assholes.
One of the best anti-scam advice I was ever given was to always call the number I knew was valid like the one on my insurance card in this instance and verify that way.
That’s part of HIPAA I believe
HIPAA is about disclosure of personal medical details not about what phone numbers to call.
That’s not really correct. HIPAA is a set of requirements that governs everything that touches HIPAA protected data.
It’s also just a good policy in general. Anytime you receive a communication that’s prompting you to do something that you weren’t expecting to receive you should ignore any links, phone numbers, replies, etc. in that communication and instead reach out using a known good mechanism. Doing that one thing stops the overwhelming majority of scams in their tracks.
My wife and I have had our data breached 2-3 times per year. We just got a notice of a lien against my wife because someone used her info to fraudulently file a lien and the dipshit county in a state we don’t live in granted it. This has gone too far.
Very much so.
I went over to the pharmacy this morning and gave them info and am working on contacting others. This needs to be stopped somehow.
Blame ChangeHealthcare (owned by United Healthcare) and be ready for many more scammers who know your medical history.
Lovely. Sigh.
Report this to the authorities. The pharmacy should also report it and do an investigation.
The FBI would be happy to look into this. Chances are you are not the only victim.
That’s a good idea. Any idea who I should report it to specifically? Like is there a certain department I need to talk to?
I’d also hit up your state pharmacy board.
Your pharmacy did the right thing by not revealing information and calling you, other pharmacies likely aren’t that smart.
Good idea. Thanks.
Thank you!
Scams are getting pretty wild out there, and pretty convoluted.
Thanks for the heads up for this type of scam, in particular.
Change Healthcare just announced data for 100 million people was stolen when they got breached back in Feb. They handle all kinds of pharmacy stuff so I imagine this will happen a lot here on out.
