We have got to stop this fellow! Please share this info with family and friends. We should not have complete strangers trying to extort money from us by tugging at our heart strings. I am sorry for all that have given this fellow money. As for the person who calls these nice citizens, you will be discovered sooner or later and justice for EXTORTION Charges will be charged.
Spend a little time reading on 800 notes and you'll be able to do news stories for the next decade. Looking to do a story on a telephone, email, or fax scams? Extortion? Fraud? Robbery? Pick one, any one.
Just received this call on my cell phone! Man said he was EMT from Florida Hospital South and a man with my number for emergencies had been in terrible car accident, was unconscious and they needed my name and address so they could verify I was the correct person! Scared me for a minute until I realized my spouse was the only one with my number as emergency contact. I had just spoken to husband 5 minutes before so I knew it could not be him. That said, I hung up and recalled hubby just to be sure!
This is a cruel scam. If you get a call like this, just remember that what they are telling you is against federal law! No one can be denied emergency medical treatment because of questions about who's going to pay for it!
"The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was passed by the US Congress in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (COBRA), much of which dealt with Medicare issues. The law's initial intent was to ensure patient access to emergency medical care and to prevent the practice of patient dumping, in which uninsured patients were transferred, solely for financial reasons, from private to public hospitals without consideration of their medical condition or stability for the transfer. Although only 4 pages in length and barely noticed at the time, EMTALA has created a storm of controversy over the ensuing 15 years, and it is now considered one of the most comprehensive laws guaranteeing nondiscriminatory access to emergency medical care and thus to the health care system. ..."