Mastodawn

Hey NZ tooteratii...

An older friend is receiving multiple calls from a blocked number, with the caller claiming to be from Health NZ. The first was on Friday, with the caller saying they were "checking patients in outer Canterbury" who are on waiting lists.

While my friend is on a waiting list, she lives in Southland. (Red flag)

Then came the request for NH number, which my friend refused to give to a blocked number and hung up.

Then she rang Southland Hospital who confirmed she's still on the surgical wait list and they knew nothing about the phone calls.

This morning she's received another two calls, about an hour apart. I listened in to the second call and it seems dodgy to me. A woman with a heavy Indian accent was quite pushy in demanding information. Both times my friend said she would not provide personal information to someone using a blocked number, and hung up.

Given the recent ManageMyHealth fiasco, I've advised her to ring Health NZ to see if they can confirm that the calls are kosher.

Is this a scam targeting older people? Or just the Luxon government hiring an offshore call centre to try and reduce waiting lists?

Is anyone else getting these types of calls?

#HealthNZ #Scam #NZ

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Robyn Mar 8

@BobLefridge
When people contacted me a while back it was all on anonymous cell phone numbers. I probably correctly assumed they were just having to use office cell phones, as calling mine from a landline would have cost per minute None of them were blocked, that would be more of a red flag. I might be more wary now.

Medical practices never expect me to know my NHI number. They are all able to look it up.
For confirming my identity they ask for things like date of birth and residential address.
[Edit clarity, correct minor errors and typo]

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Robyn

@BobLefridge
Oh and it was mostly text messages reninding me about my hospital appointment and telling me it was a phone appointment, don't come in (an appointment which I was unaware of, and did think might be a scam, until one of the finally kept the appointment) It was anaesthetic nurse doing a screening thing and she clearly had my notes in front of her.