The OT Licensing Board is receiving an increasing number of reports of licensees receiving fraudulent calls claiming to be an investigator from the FBI or other Federal Agency, or from a Board Investigator working with a Federal Agency on an investigation. The callers will threaten loss of license and demand personal information to confirm the investigation or will demand payment. In some cases, these calls appear to be coming from the Board or other official agency because the scammers are “spoofing" telephone numbers. These callers are targeting all health professionals, and we are hearing reports from multiple boards, and from multiple states.
Another report that an OT clinic where the licensee works received an email from someone impersonating them with their credentials (written correctly, but from an email that was not theirs) and asking the clinic to change their bank account for their direct deposited paycheck. It almost worked until the clinic reached out ot the licensee. Licensees should notify their clinics to be aware of this scam.
If you receive one of these calls, or are unsure if the call you've received from the Board is legitimate, please hang up and either call us at 971-673-0198 or email otlb.info@otlb.oregon.gov to report or verify the call. We recommend reporting the incident to the FBI and www.ic3.gov. The Federal Trade Commission also provides recovery steps, shares information with more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies and takes reports at reportfraud.ftc.gov. For anyone who may have given personally identifiable information like a social security number to the caller, you can learn about how to protect against identity theft at www.identitytheft.gov.
AOTA has posted an article on their website listing red flags to watch out for to avoid being the victim of a scam: Click here for link