Caller ID Spoofing

Have you received a suspicious phone call?

Inova has received reports that some residents in our community have been receiving erroneous calls seeming to be from Inova. If you have not been a patient at an Inova facility, it is unlikely that you would be receiving a call from us, or if the call seems to be unrelated to the care you have received at Inova, please proceed with caution. 

Scammers are able to manipulate caller ID and make numbers appear as if they are coming from a legitimate organization that you may already know and trust, such as your healthcare provider. This is known as spoofing. They often use this tactic to try to steal your money or valuable personal information, which can be used in fraudulent activity. 

Learn more about spoofing from the FCC

Protect Yourself from Spoofing Attempts

We offer the following recommendations to keep our community safe from spoofing attempts:

  • Register for the National Do Not Call Registry which stops calls from real companies. 
  • Review Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) COVID-19 Scams resources.
  • You may not be able to tell right away if an incoming call is spoofed:
    • Be wary of answering phone calls from numbers that you do not recognize.
    • Do not give out any personal information (especially anything that easily identifies you) over the phone to individuals that you do not know.
    • Be careful when answering questions, especially those that can answered with “Yes” or “No”.
    • Be cautious if you're being pressured to share any information immediately.
    • Never give out personal information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, mother's maiden names, passwords or other identifying information in response to unexpected calls or if you are at all suspicious.
    • If you get an inquiry from someone who says they represent a company or a government agency, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company's or government agency's website to verify the authenticity of the request.
  • Talk to your phone company about call blocking tools and check into apps that you can download to your mobile device. The FCC allows phone companies to block automated calls by default based on reasonable analytics.
  • Maintain documentation of the encounter by writing down their name, employer, and phone number displayed on the caller ID. If you call a verified phone number, and they did not make the call, report the call: