Beware of scams involving health information
Recently, there have been many cases of health information being leaked for fraud.
Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health recommends that people when receiving information related to medical treatment issues at medical facilities and suspect signs offakeIf you are scammed, you should promptly report it to the police, call the hotline of the Department of Health and hospitals for support in confirming information.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, recently, Children's Hospital 1 discovered 2 cases of forging the director's signature and hospital seal in the document confirming the patient's condition to call for charitable donations. Specifically, on March 9, Facebook account Hoang Trung posted information calling for benefactors to support patient Hoang Quoc Thai with a certificate No. 1016/BVND1 dated March 9, 2023 issued by Children's Hospital 1. The certificate clearly stated that patient Hoang Quoc Thai was in emergency care due to cancer, encephalitis, deep coma after brain surgery and had a prognosis of death. After receiving and reviewing the information, Children's Hospital 1 confirmed that it did not issue Certificate No. 1016/BVND1 dated March 9, 2023 to patient Hoang Quoc Thai. After confirming the information, a representative of Children's Hospital 1 reported to the local police. At the same time, it was affirmed that Children's Hospital 1 only has one channel to receive contributions to support patients, which is through the Social Work Department, and no child patient will not be treated if they cannot pay.
Previously, Cho Ray Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City also issued a warning about the situation of using the hospital's name to defraud people via social networks. These subjects continuously posted information about patients in dire straits, especially children, being treated at Cho Ray Hospital to call for donations. The common point of the fraudulent charity posts is that the patients are in dire straits with pictures of the patients, hospital admission papers, surgical fee notices, advance payment receipts and specific information about the account number receiving the support money. However, through verification by the hospital, all the content and pictures of the patients posted are fake. The images of invoices and documents in the posts calling for donations are also not true.
Along with spreading information calling for charity to scam, recently, some people have been called by scammers to inform them that their children or relatives have had an accident and have to be hospitalized for emergency treatment with the aim of defrauding and appropriating property. Specifically, the subjects use one of the following methods of fraud: Impersonating teachers or hospital staff to directly contact parents to inform them that their students have had an accident and are being hospitalized for emergency treatment at the hospital, asking their families to urgently transfer money to pay for the student's surgery. This phenomenon has occurred at Cho Ray Hospital and Children's Hospital 1. Some parents have transferred hundreds of millions of VND to scammers because they thought their children were being treated there.
Through the above-mentioned fake cases, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health determined that the fraudsters' tricks are increasingly sophisticated and directly target parents of students. The Department of Health recommends that people, especially parents, be careful of fake information from these subjects. When receiving information related to medical treatment issues at medical facilities and suspecting signs of fraud or deception, the Department of Health recommends that people, in addition to promptly reporting to the police, should also notify the Department of Health's hotline at 0967.77.10.10 or 028.3930.7916 and the hospital hotlines for support in confirming information.
The Department of Health requires medical facilities in the area to strengthen the confidentiality of information about patients being treated in departments and rooms, to avoid being exploited by bad guys for profit and fraud. When detecting falsification of information and documents related to the treatment of patients at the unit, facilities are requested to immediately report to the Department of Health Inspectorate and the City Police for timely guidance and handling.
