Con artists are taking advantage of pandemic fears to gather personal information, warns Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.
Some people have received text messages encouraging them to call a phone number similar to the COVID-19 booking helpline and are being prompted to provide their driver’s licence and other information to confirm their identity for their vaccination appointment.
“Public health only contacts individuals with vaccination appointments to either remind them of their appointment or to advise them of a cancellation or change to the appointment,” states a WDG Public Health news release. “If you receive a text like this, please contact your local law enforcement or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and do not respond to the message.”
The fraudulent number provided is 1-844-480-0202, which is one digit off of the booking helpline at 1-844-780-0202 – replacing the “7” with a “4.”
"At this point we don’t have any reason to believe that any one group is being targeted over another," said Danny Williams, WDG Public Health communications specialist, via email. "It seems random WDG numbers are being targeted."
For more information on COVID-19 vaccines, visit wdgpublichealth.ca/vaccine.
