Scammers have been targeting locals pretending to be Ipswich Hospital.
The nuisance phone text claims that a relative is in the hospital and to contact a bogus phone number immediately.
Chief Strategy Officer Claire Barratt from West Moreton Health says it’s not something the hospital does by text.
“I’d really just like to alert the community to the fact that our hospital and health service at Ipswich would never text you to say that your relative was in hospital and that if you receive this hoax text, could you please ignore it.
“Ideally, we’d like to keep our switchboard and emergency department free for legitimate emergencies,” she says.
Ms Barratt says that they became aware of the Ipswich Hospital scam when a number of people became alarmed by the text and contacted the hospital.
“On Monday night our switch board, received a small number of calls from people, who had received this scam text.
” I think naturally that people were concerned that a family member had been brought into hospital, but luckily that our switchboard was able to give them the comfort that this was not the case,” she says.
Anyone who has been targeted is urged to contact Scam Watch or report the matter to police.
