© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ohio Department of Health Warns Consumers of Phone Scamming

Jo Ingles
/
Statehouse News Bureau

A new scam that is prompting Ohioans to reveal personal information, thinking they are providing it to the health department. But that’s not the case.

Melanie Amato with the Ohio Department of Health says the scammers are using caller ID-spoofing technology to make calls appear to be from legitimate health departments.

“They’re asking for account numbers, Social Security numbers, a mother's maiden name, passwords or any other identifying information," Amato says.

Amato warns people to never to share that type of personal information over the phone and to report any of these scam calls to her agency. She says more than a hundred people have phoned in recently to report they’ve received the calls.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.