Phone scammers invite patients for "free" medical examinations

As the Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, a member of the Federation Council Vladimir Krugly said on the air of Sputnik radio, annoying offers to visit a “free medical examination”, as a rule, are received by potential victims of fraud by phone.

“Calls like this are just a divorce. This is one of the ways to lure people into your tenacious hands, so that later you can spin them for money. Such a survey cannot be completely free of charge”, - the expert said.

According to him, the purpose of such actions is to impose many paid services on a person under the guise of a free examination.

“Without paying, no one will leave there. When they call me with such offers, I block the numbers”б - explained Krugly.

Instead of talking on the phone with the scammers, the doctor suggested walking to the nearest district polyclinic and finding out the time of the medical examination. You can go through it really free of charge - according to the OMS policy

During a pandemic and mass vaccination, the issue of clinical examination somewhat faded into the background. But in fact, no one canceled the medical examination. The state continues to allocate funds from the budget for its implementation. Representatives of state medicine invite citizens for scheduled medical examinations on time in order to identify health problems in time.

“There are so-called insurance representatives, one of whose tasks is to attract people for preventive examinations. They send SMS alerts or call citizens. These notifications should be carefully considered, and invitations from private medical companies are a cheap marketing ploy”, - the expert said.

He stressed that self-respecting private clinics, which value their reputation, do not offer their paid services over the phone under the guise of free ones.

According to experts, during the coronavirus pandemic, telephone scammers who deceive their victims remotely have especially stepped up their work. Using methods of social engineering, they try to find out as much information as possible about a person in order to then get access to his electronic wallet.