Shropshire patients warned over prescription scam

Patients with prescription medication are being warned to be vigilant after the incident, which appears to be a disturbing new take on a known telephone scam.

The warning has been put out by Church Stretton Medical Practice after one of its patients called to say she had just been asked for bank details for her medication delivery – and told she might not be eligible for free prescriptions because of her age.

Assistant practice manager Sue Marsh said: "The practice received a call from a patient who had received a telephone call from someone offering to deliver her medication.

"The patient, who has just been discharged from hospital following an operation, received a call from 'James from the Church Stretton Medical Centre' saying that they could deliver the medication she needs within two or three days, and requested her bank details and card number.

"His explanation for this was that some patients are not eligible for free prescriptions by reason of age."

However, the woman's suspicions were aroused so she did not fall for the scam, Mrs Marsh said.

"She asked him to call back in 10 minutes and rang the practice to check whether we had any knowledge of this, which we certainly did not," she said.

Mrs Marsh said she had heard of similar telephone scams before, but never one where scammers pretended to be from a doctor's surgery and tried to use someone's medical history against them.

She said it was concerning as the scammers were targeting vulnerable people when calling the sick and elderly.

He said what made matters worse was that legitimate private medication delivery services had recently "mail-bombed" houses in the area, making the scam more believable.

She said: "We have now reported this to all hospitals locally, all pharmacies, the medicines management team of Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Protect, which is the NHS's counter-fraud authority."

"We're trying to let everybody know that we can," she said.

The scam is similar to one that was reported to have reached the region about a fortnight ago, where conmen call householders claiming to be from BT or TalkTalk internet service provider.

In that version the scammers tell victims they either have a virus on their computer that needs sorting out with a specialist service or software, or that they are due a refund of some kind – again to get people to give up their bank details, or give remote access to their computer where such details may be kept.

Incidents were reported in Craven Arms, as well as across the south Shropshire border in Worcestershire.

West Mercia Police urge anyone who receives a similar call to call 101 and report it.