**Scam Alert** The Doddridge County Sheriff’s Office has received a complaint of a possible phone scam. The victim advised he had recently been to a doctors office and received a call asking for his Medicaid number. The unknown suspect appeared to have some basic knowledge of the victims underlying condition which lead the victim to believe the call was legitimate. At this time the nature in which the information gained from the victim will be used is unknown but precautions should be used when anyone asks for personal information over the phone. Unfortunately the number used in this incident appeared to be a local number however upon call back it is not in service. We ask that those who read this please pass the information along, especially to seniors who may not have social media and are typically the most vulnerable to these types of phishing scams. This apparent scam is more concerning than the typical phishing scam as the suspect somehow had some very basic medical information on the victim which allowed the suspect to appear legitimate. If you encounter a situation where you feel the information you are providing is sensitive and you did not initiate the call disconnect from the call and look up the number associated with the type of call you’re receiving or the entity that is supposedly calling you to make sure the call is legitimate and that you were talking to a representative of that business or entity. Do not use numbers provided by the original caller as these may also be fake. If you feel you are the victim of a phone scam please contact law enforcement to report the incident, however, in these cases more often than not the scams originate from out of the country and they are beyond the jurisdiction of local and state law enforcement so please be cautious so you or your loved ones are not a victim.
