Vaccine scammer had victim’s name, date of birth – even name of her doctor

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    MOBILE, AL (WALA) — When an elderly woman got a call this week informing her someone would be stopping by her house the following afternoon to give her a COVID-19 vaccine, nothing seemed amiss.

After all, the caller had key details.

“I just thought it was a result of my phone call, because the caller had her address, had her date of birth and even had her primary doctor – and even said to let her doctor know that she had gotten it,” said the victim’s daughter, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. “And unfortunately, a couple of hours after that, the nurse called me back said that was not originated by them.”

The woman said her sister accessed their mother’s phone records to get the caller’s number.

“When I called it back, it was already disconnected,” she said.

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office and the Alabama Department of Public Health warned Thursday of similar scams, including some in which callers have purported to be from the Alabama Medicaid Agency. Assistant State Health Officer Dr. Karen Landers told FOX10 News that the state is aware of a handful of these calls.

“No person is going to be calling a person and saying, ‘We can come to your house and give you a COVID vaccine; we just need personal information, or we have this personal information.’ That is not how this process works,” she said.

The victim’s daughter said she took her mother away from her home as a precaution on the day the caller said someone would be coming. She said her sister monitored a home security system.

“Shortly after we pulled away, it was within 30 minutes, I’d say, my sister called to let us know that a car had, indeed, pulled into the driveway and only was there very briefly and then they took off quickly,” she said.

The woman said she cannot be sure that the driver of the car was connected to the fraudulent call, but she added, “It seems very coincidental that a car would come, ’cause she doesn’t have visitors.”

The victim’s daughter said she and her mother both were frightened.

“We are extremely concerned because she is in her 90s, and I called because I just wanted to be able to get the word out that, to people so that they can let their, particularly their older parents or friends, just know that something like this is going on,” she said. “Because it is very concerning. And, of course, my mother’s very afraid.”

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Friday that older Alabama residents will be eligible for the vaccine beginning Jan. 18. But Landers said the supply remains limited and added that people should be on guard.

“We do not want persons, especially our senior citizens, to fall prey to this terrible situation, because we know that they want this vaccine,” she said. “But we want to remind them that nobody’s going to call, ask for your personal information, ask for a bank account or other identifiers.”

People who receive a suspicious call can report it to the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Hotline at 800-392-5658.

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