Medical Providers Targeted by Scammers Posing as WSDOH Officials

A licensed pharmacist and a dentist are the latest in a series of known scam efforts targeting WA state medical providers.

The Washington State Department of Health says a dentist (whose identity was not released) was scammed out of some $40,000 by a fake WSDOH official.

A fax and other correspondence bearing 'official' WSDOH letterhead and other identifying marks told the man his license was revoked. In the process of trying to resolve it, he ended up wiring the money to a bank account that turns out was in Warsaw, Poland. Using digital technology, scammers have become very good at imitating official looking letterheads and correspondence.

In the case of the pharmacist, she received a number of calls that the phone caller ID said were the WSDOH. The scammers were using a spoofing device, that can change a number to look like it's from a credible source. However, when they told the woman her license was under investigation, she knew it was not because it had been recently reviewed. The pharmacist then realized it was a scammer, because they began asking her questions that she knew the WSDOH already had answers for.

She did not respond to further calls, but the scammer kept trying, and left several voice messages.

The WSDOH says their agency will NEVER require a medical provider to wire or send money to validate or 'fix' any problem with a license or practice. There's a specific list of steps that precede the possibility of having to pay to rectify fines or issues.

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