Scam robocalls are even fooling hospitals. Here’s how Congress can make that can stop.

July 31, 2019

Your heart races as your cellphone on the bedside table comes alive and wakes you in the middle of the night. Through blurry eyes, you see the number flash across your screen and recognize it instantly — the cancer center where your loved one is being treated. Your anxiety rises as you answer the phone.

Only it’s a fraud. A scam robocall has been able to make it appear that the number of origin is the hospital’s, and to try to use the fear and urgency of the situation to pry sensitive personal and financial information from the unwitting person who receives the call.