RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – A healthcare worker is warning others after she was scammed out of thousands of dollars following a phone call where two people pretended to be Richmond Police officers.
According to the woman, who wished to remain anonymous, the scammers called her on Monday, Jan. 22, pretending to be Richmond Police third precinct officers. She said the scam sounded so believable – even the officers names and badges checked out.
“I answered [the phone call], of course, and it was, who I thought, [was] an officer [who] sounded very formal, sounded very professional,” she said.
She said the people on the phone made it known that they were an officer, and went on to tell her she was supposed to appear in court that same day as an expert witness for one of her old juvenile patients, who has sexual assault charges against him.
“My last rotation right before I graduated was psych, and there were a lot of patients that matched that description in that rotation. And so I was thinking that this was just one of those. Any one of those patients, it could be,” she said. “This happens all the time. If you ask a bunch of health care workers, they get subpoenaed, subpoenaed and asked to come into court all the time.”